arXiv subjects

R. A. Ibata

Publications and source records attributed to R. A. Ibata.

47 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2004

Concerning the White Dwarf Cooling Age of M4: A Response to the Paper by De Marchi et al. on "A Different Interpretation of Recent HST Observations"

We respond to the paper by De Marchi, Paresce, Straniero and Moroni (2003) on the white dwarf cooling age of M4. The authors question the data analysis and interpretation that led to the conclusions in Hansen et al. (2002). In their paper, De Marchi et al. are unable to obtain photometry as deep as ours from the same data set and therefore assert that only a lower limit to the white dwarf cooling age for this cluster of approximately 9 Gyr can be obtained. In this short contribution we show that shortcomings in the data analysis and reduction techniques of De Marchi et al. are responsible for their inability to reach the photometry limits that our study reports. In a forthcoming paper in which the complete techniques for age determination with white dwarfs are laid out, we demonstrate that their method of fitting the luminosity function gives a spuriously low white dwarf cooling age.

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arXiv2004

Determining the Location of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch in Old Stellar Populations: M33, Andromeda I & II

The absolute bolometric luminosity of the point of core Helium ignition in old, metal poor, red-giant stars is of roughly constant magnitude, varying only very slightly with mass or metallicity. It can thus be used as a standard candle. Here, we review the main difficulties in measuring this location in any real dataset and develop an empirical approach to optimise it for tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) analysis. We go on to present a new algorithm for the identification of the TRGB in nearby metal poor stellar systems. Our method uses a least-squares fit of a data-adaptive slope to the luminosity function in 1 magnitude windows. This finds the region of the luminosity function that shows the most significant decline in star counts as we go to brighter magnitudes; the base of this decline is attributed as the location of the tip. This technique then allows for the determination of realistic uncertainties which reflect the quality of the luminosity function used, but which are typically ~0.02 mags rms + ~ 0.03 mags systematic, a significant improvement upon previous methods that have used the tip as a standard candle. Finally, we apply our technique to the Local Group spiral galaxy M33 and the dwarf galaxies And I & II, and derive distance modulii of 24.50 +/- 0.06 (794 +/- 23 kpc), 24.33 +/- 0.07 (735 +/- 23 kpc) and 24.05 +/- 0.06 (645 +/- 19 kpc) respectively. The result for M33 is in excellent agreement with the Cepheid distances to this galaxy, and makes the possibility of a significant amount of reddening in this object unlikely.

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arXiv2004

HST Observations of the Main Sequence of M4

This paper presents new results from a photometric study of the main-sequence stars in M4, the closest globular cluster to the sun. Multi-field, multi-epoch observations at approximately 1, 2, and 6 core-radii were obtained with the WFPC2 camera on the HST. The multi-epoch observations allowed us to clean the data on the basis of proper motion. In all the fields the cluster main sequence can be traced to at least V = 27.0 but there remains a trail of stars to the limit of the data near V = 30 in the deepest outer field. There is no evidence that we have reached the end of the hydrogen burning main sequence in any of our fields, however, there is some indication that very few stars remain to be detected in the deepest data. The scatter about the cluster main sequence yields a surprisingly small and variable binary fraction; f_b = 2% in the inner parts of the cluster falling to the 1% range outside. For the currently visible main sequence stars, the cluster mass function is very flat (alpha =0.1) in the outer field and flattens further in the inner fields suggesting well developed mass segregation. The observed variation in the mass function is broadly consistent with isotropic, multi-mass Michie-King models. Because we have a large sample of white dwarfs in the outer field we are able to show that the cluster IMF above 0.8Msun was considerably steeper than the present day mass function for low mass stars. Two appendicies are included in this contribution; a detailed discussion of the techniques used to reduce the data and a direct comparison between the cluster stars and those belonging to the inner spheroid of the Galaxy yielding a Galactocentric distance of 7.5+/-0.6 kpc.

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arXiv2004

The Andromeda Stream

The existence of a stream of tidally stripped stars from the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy demonstrates that the Milky Way is still in the process of accreting mass. More recently, an extensive stream of stars has been uncovered in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), revealing that it too is cannibalizing a small companion. This paper reports the recent observations of this stream, determining it spatial and kinematic properties, and tracing its three-dimensional structure, as well as describing future observations and what we may learn about the Andromeda galaxy from this giant tidal stream.

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arXiv2003

A dwarf galaxy remnant in Canis Major: the fossil of an in-plane accretion onto the Milky Way

We present an analysis of the asymmetries in the population of Galactic M-giant stars present in the 2MASS All Sky catalogue. Several large-scale asymmetries are detected, the most significant of which is a strong elliptical-shaped stellar over-density, close to the Galactic plane at (l=240, b=-8), in the constellation of Canis Major. A small grouping of globular clusters (NGC 1851, NGC 1904, NGC 2298, and NGC 2808), coincident in position and radial velocity, surround this structure, as do a number of open clusters. The population of M-giant stars in this over-density is similar in number to that in the core of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. We argue that this object is the likely dwarf galaxy progenitor of the ring-like structure that has recently been found at the edge of the Galactic disk. A numerical study of the tidal disruption of an accreted dwarf galaxy is presented. The simulated debris fits well the extant position, distance and velocity information on the ``Galactic Ring'', as well as that of the M-giant over-densities, suggesting that all these structures are the consequence of a single accretion event. The disrupted dwarf galaxy stream orbits close to the Galactic Plane, with a pericentre at approximately the Solar circle, an orbital eccentricity similar to that of stars in the Galactic thick disk, as well as a vertical scale height similar to that of the thick disk. This finding strongly suggests that the Canis Major dwarf galaxy is a building block of the Galactic thick disk, that the thick disk is continually growing, even up to the present time, and that thick disk globular clusters were accreted onto the Milky Way from dwarf galaxies in co-planar orbits.

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arXiv2003

The three dimensional structure of the giant stellar stream in Andromeda

The wide-field CCD camera at the CFH telescope was used to survey the giant stellar stream in the Andromeda galaxy, resolving stars down the red giant branch in M31 to I ~ 25, a magnitude deeper than our previous INT survey of this galaxy and extending 1 degree further out. The stream is seen to extend out to the south-east of M31 as far as we have surveyed (some 4.5 degrees, corresponding to a projected distance ~60 kpc). It is a linear structure in projection, and the eastern edge of the stream presents a sharp boundary in star counts suggesting that it remains a coherent structure. By analysing the luminosity function of the metal rich component of the stream we find that, at the furthest extent of our survey, the stream is 100 kpc further away along the line of sight than M31. It can then be traced to a point on the north-western side of the galaxy where it is some 30 kpc in front of M31, at which point the stream turns away from our survey area.

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arXiv2003

One Ring to Encompass them All: A giant stellar structure that surrounds the Galaxy

We present evidence that the curious stellar population found by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in the Galactic anticentre direction extends to other distant fields that skirt the plane of the Milky Way. New data, taken with the INT Wide Field Camera show a similar population, narrowly aligned along the line of sight, but with a Galactocentric distance that changes from ~15 kpc to \~20 kpc (over ~100 degrees on the sky). Despite being narrowly concentrated along the line of sight, the structure is fairly extended vertically out of the plane of the Disk, with a vertical scale height of 0.75+/-0.04 kpc. This finding suggests that the outer rim of the Galaxy ends in a low-surface brightness stellar ring. Presently available data do not allow us to ascertain the origin of the structure. One possibility is that it is the wraith of a satellite galaxy devoured long-ago by the Milky Way, though our favoured interpretation is that it is a perturbation of the disk, possibly the result of ancient warps. Assuming that the Ring is smooth and axisymmetric, the total stellar mass in the structure may amount to 2x10^8 up to 10^9 Solar masses.

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arXiv2001

Uncovering CDM halo substructure with tidal streams

Models for the formation and growth of structure in a cold dark matter dominated universe predict that galaxy halos should contain significant substructure. Studies of the Milky Way, however, have yet to identify the expected few hundred sub-halos with masses greater than about 10^6 Msun. Here we propose a test for the presence of sub-halos in the halos of galaxies. We show that the structure of the tidal tails of ancient globular clusters is very sensitive to heating by repeated close encounters with the massive dark sub-halos. We discuss the detection of such an effect in the context of the next generation of astrometric missions, and conclude that it should be easily detectable with the GAIA dataset. The finding of a single extended cold stellar stream from a globular cluster would support alternative theories, such as self-interacting dark matter, that give rise to smoother halos.

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arXiv2001

Sub-structure of the outer Galactic Halo from the 2 Micron All Sky Survey

A pole-count analysis of the infrared 2MASS survey is presented, in order to identify faint stream-like structures within the halo of the Milky Way. Selecting stars with colours consistent with M-giant stars, we find a strong over-density of sources on a stream with pole (l=95,b=13), which corresponds to the pole of the orbit of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. This great-circle feature of width ~12 degrees, contains 5% of the late M-giants in the Halo. No other stream-like structures are detected in M-giants in the 2MASS Second Incremental Data Release (2IDR), and in particular, we find no evidence for a stellar component to the Magellanic Stream. This suggests that the present accretion rate of low-mass satellites with a luminous component is very low, and the formation of the luminous component of the Halo must have been essentially complete before the accretion of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, more than 3Gyr ago. We also search for great-circle streams using almost all high-latitude (|b|>30) sources in the 2IDR dataset. No narrow great-circle streams of width 0.5-2 degrees were found, though we were only sensitive to relatively nearby (<17kpc) remnants of massive (10^6 Msun) globular clusters. If the Galactic potential is close to being spherical, as some recent observations suggest, the lack of observed great-circle streams is consistent with the presence of dark matter substructures in the Halo. Although alternative explanations cannot be ruled out from our analysis of the 2IDR dataset, future experiments with better statistics have the potential to reveal the heating effect of dark matter substructure on stellar streams.

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arXiv1999

An Investigation of Gravitational Lensing in the Southern BL Lac PKS 0537-441

The BL-Lac family of active galaxies possess almost featureless spectra and exhibit rapid variability over their entire spectral range. A number of models have been developed to explain these extreme properties, several of which have invoked the action of microlensing by sub-stellar mass objects in a foreground galaxy; this not only introduces variability, but also amplifies an otherwise normal quasar source. Here we present recent spectroscopy and photometry of the southern BL Lac PKS 0537-441; with an inferred redshift of z~0.9 it represents one of the most distant and most luminous members of the BL Lac family. The goal of the observations was not only to confirm the redshift of PKS~0537-441, but also to determine the redshift of a putative galaxy along the line of sight to the BL-Lac; it has been proposed that this galaxy is the host of microlensing stars that account for PKS 0537-441's extreme properties. While several observations have failed to detect any extended emission in PKS 0537-441, the HST imaging data presented here indicate the presence of a galactic component, although we fail to identify any absorption features that reveal the redshift of the emission. It is also noted that PKS 0537-441 is accompanied by several small, but extended companions, located a few arcseconds from the point-like BL-Lac source. Two possibilities present themselves; either they represent true companions of PKS 0537-441, or are themselves gravitationally lensed images of more distant sources.

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arXiv1998

Adaptive optics imaging and integral field spectroscopy of APM 08279+5255: Evidence for gravitational lensing

We report observations of the z = 3.87 broad absorption line quasar APM 08279+5255 (Irwin et al. 1998) with the Adaptive Optics Bonnette (AOB) of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The object is found to be a double source. The separation of the two images is 0.35" +/- 0.02" and the intensity ratio I_{north}/I_{south} = 1.21 +/- 0.25 in the H-band. No other image is detected down to H(5sigma) = 21.3 within 10" from the double image. Strong support for the lensing hypothesis comes from the uniformity of the quasar spectrum as a function of spatial position in the image obtained with the integral field spectrograph OASIS at CFHT. From the 2D-spectroscopy, narrow-band images are reconstructed over the wavelength range 5600-6200A to search for emission-line objects in a field of 15"x12" around the quasar. We find no such object to a limit of 6x10^{-17} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}. We use the images centered on the deepest absorption lines of the Ly-alpha forest to dim the quasar and to increase the sensitivity closer to the line of sight. One of the images, centered at 5766.4A, exhibits a 3sigma excess 1.5" from the quasar to the north-east.

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