arXiv subjects

Souradeep Bhattacharya

Publications and source records attributed to Souradeep Bhattacharya.

41 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

The blue straggler population of the old open cluster Berkeley 17

Blue Straggler Stars (BSSs) are observed in Galactic globular clusters and old open clusters. The radial distribution of BSSs has been used to diagnose the dynamical evolution of globular clusters. For the first time, with a reliable sample of BSSs identified with Gaia DR2, we conduct such an analysis for an open cluster. We identify members, including BSSs, of the oldest known Galactic open cluster Berkeley 17 with the Gaia DR2 proper motions and parallaxes. We study the radial distribution of the BSS population to understand the dynamical evolution of the cluster. We select cluster members to populate the colour magnitude diagram in the Gaia filters. Cluster parameters are derived using the brightest members. The BSSs and giant branch stars are identified, and their radial distributions are compared. The segregation of BSSs is also evaluated with respect to the giant branch stars using the Minimum Spanning Tree analysis. We determine Berkeley 17 to be at $3138.6^{+285.5}_{-352.9}$ pc. We find 23 BSS cluster members, only two of which were previously identified. We find a bimodal radial distribution of BSSs supported by findings from the MST method. The bimodal radial distribution of BSSs in Berkeley 17 indicates that they have just started to sink towards the cluster center, placing Berkeley 17 with globular clusters of intermediate dynamical age. This is the first such determination for an open cluster.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Star formation toward the H~II region IRAS 10427-6032

The formation and properties of star clusters formed at the edges of H II regions are poorly known. We study stellar content, physical conditions, and star formation processes around a relatively unknown young H II region IRAS 10427-6032, located in the southern outskirts of the Carina Nebula. We make use of near-IR data from VISTA, mid-IR from Spitzer and WISE, far-IR from Herschel, sub-mm from ATLASGAL, and 843 MHz radio-continuum data. Using multi-band photometry, we find a total of 5 Class I and 29 Class II young stellar object (YSO) candidates, most of which newly identified, in the 5'$\times$5' region centered on the IRAS source position. Modeling of the spectral energy distribution for selected YSO candidates using radiative transfer models shows that most of these candidates are intermediate mass YSOs in their early evolutionary stages. A majority of the YSO candidates are found to be coincident with the cold dense clump at the western rim of the H II region. Lyman continuum luminosity calculation using radio emission indicates the spectral type of the ionizing source to be earlier than B0.5-B1. We identified a candidate massive star possibly responsible for the H II region with an estimated spectral type B0-B0.5. The temperature and column density maps of the region constructed by performing pixel-wise modified blackbody fits to the thermal dust emission using the far-IR data show a high column density shell-like morphology around the H II region, and low column density (0.6 $\times$ 10$^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$) and high temperature ($\sim$21 K) matter within the H II region. Based on the morphology of the region in the ionized and the molecular gas, and the comparison between the estimated timescales of the H II region and the YSO candidates in the clump, we argue that the enhanced star-formation at the western rim of the H II region is likely due to compression by the ionized gas.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Chandra studies of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae: A deeper X-ray source catalogue, five new X-ray counterparts to millisecond radio pulsars, and new constraints to r-mode instability window

We combined Chandra ACIS observations of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae (hereafter, 47 Tuc) from 2000, 2002, and 2014-15 to create a deeper X-ray source list, and study some of the faint radio millisecond pulsars (MSPs) present in this cluster. We have detected 370 X-ray sources within the half-mass radius (2$'$.79) of the cluster, 81 of which are newly identified, by including new data and using improved source detection techniques. The majority of the newly identified sources are in the crowded core region, indicating cluster membership. We associate five of the new X-ray sources with chromospherically active BY Dra or W UMa variables identified by Albrow et al. (2001). We present alternative positions derived from two methods, centroiding and image reconstruction, for faint, crowded sources. We are able to extract X-ray spectra of the recently discovered MSPs 47 Tuc aa, 47 Tuc ab, the newly timed MSP 47 Tuc Z, and the newly resolved MSPs 47 Tuc S and 47 Tuc F. Generally, they are well fit by black body or neutron star atmosphere models, with temperatures, luminosities and emitting radii similar to those of other known MSPs in 47 Tuc, though 47 Tuc aa and 47 Tuc ab reach lower X-ray luminosities. We limit X-ray emission from the full surface of the rapidly spinning (542 Hz) MSP 47 Tuc aa, and use this limit to put an upper bound for amplitude of r-mode oscillations in this pulsar as $α<2.5\times 10^{-9}$ and constrain the shape of the r-mode instability window.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2017

Disintegration of the Aged Open Cluster Berkeley 17

We present the analysis of the morphological shape of Berkeley 17, the oldest known open cluster (~10 Gyr), using a probabilistic star counting of Pan-STARRS point sources, and confirm its core-tail shape, plus an antitail, previously detected with the 2MASS data. The stellar population, as diagnosed by the color-magnitude diagram and theoretical isochrones, shows many massive members in the cluster core, whereas there is a paucity of such members in both tails. This manifests mass segregation in this aged star cluster with the low-mass members being stripped away from the system. It has been claimed that Berkeley 17 is associated with an excessive number of blue straggler candidates. Comparison of nearby reference fields indicates that about half of these may be field contamination.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Morphology of Open Clusters NGC 1857 and Czernik 20 using Clustering Algorithms

The morphology and cluster membership of the Galactic open clusters - Czernik 20 and NGC 1857 were analyzed using two different clustering algorithms. We present the maiden use of density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) to determine open cluster morphology from spatial distribution. The region of analysis has also been spatially classified using a statistical membership determination algorithm. We utilized near infrared (NIR) data for a suitably large region around the clusters from the United Kingdom Infrared Deep Sky Survey Galactic Plane Survey star catalogue database, and also from the Two Micron All Sky Survey star catalogue database. The densest regions of the cluster morphologies (1 for Czernik 20 and 2 for NGC 1857) thus identified were analyzed with a K-band extinction map and color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). To address significant discrepancy in known distance and reddening parameters, we carried out field decontamination of these CMDs and subsequent isochrone fitting of the cleaned CMDs to obtain reliable distance and reddening parameters for the clusters (Czernik 20: D = 2900 pc; E(J-K) = 0.33; NGC 1857: D = 2400 pc; E(J-K) = 0.18-0.19). The isochrones were also used to convert the luminosity functions for the densest regions of Czernik 20 and NGC 1857 into mass function, to derive their slopes. Additionally, a previously unknown over-density consistent with that of a star cluster is identified in the region of analysis.

astro-ph.GA↗