arXiv subjects

V. D. Ivanov

Publications and source records attributed to V. D. Ivanov.

125 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

VLT/SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of The Super-antennae

We present the results of H- and K-band VLT/SINFONI integral field spectroscopy of the ULIRG IRAS 19254-7245 (The Super-antennae), an interacting double galaxy system containing an embedded AGN. Deep K-band spectroscopy reveals PaAlpha arising in a warped disc with position angle of 330 degree and an inclination i=40-55 degree. The kinemetric parameters derived for H2 are similar to PaAlpha. Two high-ionization emission lines, [SiVI] and [AlIX], are detected and we identify as [NiII] the line observed at 1.94 micron. Diluting non-stellar continuum, which was previously detected, has decayed, and the H-band continuum emission is consistent with pure stellar emission. Based on H2 emission line ratios it is likely that at the central 1-kpc region H2 is excited by UV fluorescence in dense clouds while shock excitation is dominant further out. This scenario is supported by very low PaAlpha to H2 line ratio detected outside the nuclear region and non-thermal ortho/para ratios (~2.0 - 2.5) close to the nucleus.

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arXiv2007

Obscured clusters.I. GLIMPSE30 - Young Milky Way Star Cluster Hosting Wolf-Rayet Stars

Young massive clusters are perfect astrophysical laboratories for study of massive stars. Clusters with Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are of special importance, since this enables us to study a coeval WR population at a uniform metallicity and known age. GLIMPSE30 (G30) is one of them. The cluster is situated near the Galactic plane (l=298.756deg, b=-0.408deg) and we aimed to determine its physical parameters and to investigate its high-mass stellar content and especially WR stars. Our analysis is based on SOFI/NTT JsHKs imaging and low resolution (R~2000) spectroscopy of the brightest cluster members in the K atmospheric window. For the age determination we applied isochrone fits for MS and Pre-MS stars. We derived stellar parameters of the WR stars candidates using a full nonLTE modeling of the observed spectra. Using a variety of techniques we found that G30 is very young cluster, with age t~4Myr. The cluster is located in Carina spiral arm, it is deeply embedded in dust and suffers reddening of Av~10.5+-1.1mag. The distance to the object is d=7.2+-0.9kpc. The mass of the cluster members down to 2.35Msol is ~1600Msol. Cluster's MF for the mass range of 5.6 to 31.6Msol shows a slope of Gamma=-1.01+-0.03. The total mass of the cluster obtained by this MF down to 1Msol is about 3x10^3Msol. The spectral analysis and the models allow us to conclude that in G30 are at least one Ofpe/WN and two WR stars. The WR stars are of WN6-7 hydrogen rich type with progenitor masses more than 60Msol. G30 is a new member of the exquisite family of young Galactic clusters, hosting WR stars. It is a factor of two to three less massive than some of the youngest super-massive star clusters like Arches, Quintuplet and Central cluster and is their smaller analog.

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arXiv2007

Debris Disks in NGC 2547

We have surveyed the 30 Myr-old cluster NGC 2547 for planetary debris disks using Spitzer. At 4.5-8 um we are sensitive to the photospheric level down to mid-M stars (0.2 Msol) and at 24 um to early-G stars (1.2 Msol). We find only two to four stars with excesses at 8 um out of ~400-500 cluster members, resulting in an excess fraction <~1 percent at this wavelength. By contrast, the excess fraction at 24 um is ~40 percent (for B-F types). Out of four late-type stars with excesses at 8 um two marginal ones are consistent with asteroid-like debris disks. Among stars with strong 8 um excesses one is possibly from a transitional disk, while another one can be a result of a catastrophic collision. Our survey demonstrates that the inner 0.1-1 AU parts of disks around solar-type stars clear out very thoroughly by 30 Myrs of age. Comparing with the much slower decay of excesses at 24 and 70 um, disks clear from the inside out, of order 10 Myr for the inner zones probed at 8 um compared with a hundred or more Myr for those probed with the two longer wavelengths.

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arXiv2007

The Variable Star One-shot Project, and its little child: Wikimbad

The Variable Star One-shot Project (VSOP) aimed at providing to the world-wide stellar community the necessary one-shot spectrum of unstudied variable stars, too often classified as such by an analysis of photometric data only. The VSOP has established an new kind of observational model, where all steps from observations to spectral analysis, are automatized (or are underway to be fully automatized). The project is centralized on a collaborative wiki website. The VSOP operational model is very successful, data is continously flowing and being analyszed, and VSOP is now a worldwide open collaboration of people with very different and complementary skills and expertise. The idea of a central wiki website has been extended by one of us to propose a new service to the whole astronomical community, called Wikimbad. Wikimbad is an open wiki website aimed at collecting, organizing and making publicly available all kind of reduced and published astronomical data. Its strengths and a comparison with the Virtual Observatory are discussed. See: http://vsop.sc.eso.org and http://wikimbad.org

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arXiv2007

Carbon Stars and C/M Ratio in the WLM Dwarf Irregular Galaxy

We identify the rich Carbon star population of the Magellanic-type dwarf irregular galaxy WLM (Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte) and study its photometric properties from deep near-IR observations. The galaxy exhibits also a clear presence of Oxygen rich population. We derive a Carbon to M-star ratio of C/M=0.56(+/-0.12), relatively high in comparison with many galaxies. The spatial distribution of the AGB stars in WLM hints at the presence of two stellar complexes with a size of a few hundred parsecs. Using the HI map of WLM and the derived gas-to-dust ratio for this galaxy we re-determined the distance modulus of WLM from the IR photometry of four known Cepheids, obtaining (m-M)o=24.84(+/-0.14) mag. In addition, we determine the scale length of 0.75(+/-)0.14 kpc of WLM disk in J-band.

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arXiv2006

Discovery of new Milky Way star cluster candidates in the 2MASS point source catalog. V. Follow-up observations of the young stellar cluster candidates RCW87, [BDSB2003]164 and [DBSB2003]172

Massive clusters are more often found in actively star forming galaxies than in quiescent ones, similar to the Milky Way. We have carried out an extensive survey of obscured Milky Way clusters to determine whether our Galaxy is still forming such objects. Near-infrared spectral classification of some probable cluster members was used to derive the distances to the cluster candidates. Isochrone analysis of deep near-infrared color-magnitude diagrams allowed us to obtain age and mass estimates. We report the physical parameters of three cluster candidates: RCW87 is approx. 25 Myr old, located at a distance of D=7.6 Kpc in the general direction of the Galactic center. Adding the mass of the suspected cluster members we obtain an estimated total cluster mass of approx. 10300 solar masses. The mid-infrared photometry indicates that some next-generation star formation is on-going in the associated HII region, probably triggered by supernovae or stellar wind from the older stars in RCW87. The brightest member of [BDSB2003]164 is an O5V type star, based on our spectroscopy. This limits the cluster age to less than a few million years. The estimated total mass is approx. 1760 solar masses and the distance is D=3.2 Kpc. [DBSB2003]172 lacks central concentration and most likely this is not a cluster but an extended star forming region. The high mass of RCW87 -- if confirmed -- puts this object in line with Arches and Quintuplet, among the most young massive clusters in the Galaxy. Further study is necessary to confirm this important result.

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arXiv2006

Optical and Near-Infrared Observations of the Peculiar Type Ia Supernova 1999ac

We present 39 nights of optical photometry, 34 nights of infrared photometry, and 4 nights of optical spectroscopy of the Type Ia SN 1999ac. This supernova was discovered two weeks before maximum light, and observations were begun shortly thereafter. At early times its spectra resembled the unusual SN 1999aa and were characterized by very high velocities in the Ca II H and K lines, but very low velocities in the Si II 6355 A line. The optical photometry showed a slow rise to peak brightness but, quite peculiarly, was followed by a more rapid decline from maximum. Thus, the B- and V-band light curves cannot be characterized by a single stretch factor. We argue that the best measure of the nature of this object is not the decline rate parameter Delta m_15 (B). The B-V colors were unusual from 30 to 90 days after maximum light in that they evolved to bluer values at a much slower rate than normal Type Ia supernovae. The spectra and bolometric light curve indicate that this event was similar to the spectroscopically peculiar slow decliner SN 1999aa.

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arXiv2005

Discovery of new Milky Way star cluster candidates in the 2MASS point source catalog III. Follow-up observations of cluster candidates in the Galactic Center region

This paper is part of a project to search the inner Milky Way for hidden massive clusters and to address the question of whether our Galaxy still forms clusters similar to the progenitors of the present-day globular clusters. We report high angular resolution deep near-infrared imaging of 21 cluster candidates selected from the catalogues of Bica et al. (2003) and Dutra et al.(2003) in a region around the Galactic Center. These catalogues were created from visual inspection of the 2MASS images. Seven objects appear to be genuine clusters, and for these objects we present estimates of extinction, distance and in some cases age and mass. Our estimated masses range from 1200 to 5500 solar masses. These clusters are thus significantly smaller than any Galactic globular cluster, and indicate that the formation of massive young clusters such as Arches and Quintuplet is not common in the present-day Milky Way. The remaining 14 objects are either not clusters or cannot be classified based on our data.

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arXiv2005

Discovery of new Milky Way star cluster candidates in the 2MASS Point Source Catalog IV. Follow-up observations of cluster candidates in the Galactic plane

Nearly 500 cluster candidates have been reported by searches based on the new all-sky near infrared surveys. The true nature of the majority of these objects is still unknown. This project aims to estimate the physical parameters of some of the candidates in order to use them as probes of the obscured star formation in the Milky Way. Here we report deep near infrared observations of four objects, discovered by our search based on the 2MASS Point Source Catalog (Ivanov et al. 2002; Borissova et al. 2003). CC04 appears to be a few million year old cluster. We estimate its distance and extinction, and set a limit on the total mass. CC08 contains red supergiants, indicating a slightly older age of about 7-10 Myr. The suspected cluster nature of CC13 was not confirmed. CC14 appears to be an interesting candidate with double-tail-like morphology but our data doesn't allow us to derive a firm conclusion about the nature of this object. We found no supermassive star clusters similar to the Arches or the Quintuplet (Mtot >= 10**4 Msolar) among the dozen confirmed clusters studied so far in this series of papers, indicating that such objects are not common in the Milky Way.

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arXiv2004

Optical and Infrared Photometry of the Type Ia Supernovae 1991T, 1991bg, 1999ek, 2001bt, 2001cn, 2001cz, and 2002bo

We present optical and/or infrared photometry of the Type Ia supernovae SN 1991T, SN 1991bg, SN 1999ek, SN 2001bt, SN 2001cn, SN 2001cz, and SN 2002bo. All but one of these supernovae have decline rate parameters Delta m_15(B) close to the median value of 1.1 for the whole class of Type Ia supernovae. The addition of these supernovae to the relationship between the near-infrared absolute magnitudes and Delta m_15(B) strengthens the previous relationships we have found, in that the maximum light absolute magnitudes are essentially independent of the decline rate parameter. (SN 1991bg, the prototype of the subclass of fast declining Type Ia supernovae, is a special case.) The dispersion in the Hubble diagram in JHK is only ~0.15 mag. The near-infrared properties of Type Ia supernovae continue to be excellent measures of the luminosity distances to the supernova host galaxies, due to the need for only small corrections from the epoch of observation to maximum light, low dispersion in absolute magnitudes at maximum light, and the minimal reddening effects in the near-infrared.

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arXiv2004

A search for late-type supergiants in the inner regions of the Milky Way

We present the results of a narrow-band infrared imaging survey of a narrow strip (12' wide) around the galactic equator between 6 deg and 21 deg of galactic longitude aimed at detecting field stars with strong CO absorption, mainly late-type giants and supergiants. Our observations include follow-up low resolution spectroscopy (R = 980) of 191 selected candidates in the H and K bands. Most of these objects have photometric and spectroscopic characteristics consistent with them being red giants, and some display broad, strong absorption wings due to water vapor absorption between the H and K bands. We also identify in our sample 18 good supergiant candidates characterized by their lack of noticeable water absorption, strong CO bands in the H and K windows, and HK_S photometry suggestive of high intrinsic luminosity and extinctions reaching up to A_V ~40 mag. Another 9 additional candidates share the same features except for weak H2O absorption, which is also observed among some M supergiants in the solar neighbourhood. Interesting differences are noticed when comparing our stars to a local sample of late-type giants and supergiants, as well as to a sample of red giants in globular clusters of moderately subsolar metallicity and to a sample of bulge stars. (...) We propose that the systematic spectroscopic differences of our inner Galaxy stars are due to their higher metallicities that cause deeper mixing in their mantles, resulting in lower surface abundances of C and O and higher abundances of CN, which contribute to the strength of the CaI and NaI features at low resolution. Our results stress the limitations of using local stars as templates for the study of composite cool stellar populations such as central starbursts in galaxies (Abridged).

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arXiv2003

Discovery of New Milky Way Star Cluster Candidates in the 2MASS Point Source Catalog II. Physical Properties of the Star Cluster CC01

Three new obscured Milky Way clusters were detected as surface density peaks in the 2MASS point source catalog during our on-going search for hidden globular clusters and massive Arches-like star clusters. One more cluster was discovered serendipitously during a visual inspection of the candidates. The first deep J, H, and Ks imaging of the cluster [IBP2002] CC01 is presented. We estimated a cluster age of ~1-3 Myr, distance modulus of (m-M)0=12.56+-0.08 mag (D=3.5 Kpc), and extinction of AV~7.7 mag. We also derived the initial mass function slope for the cluster: Gamma=-2.23+-0.16. The integration over the initial mass function yielded a total cluster mass M_{total}<=1800+-200Msol. CC01 appears to be a regular, not very massive star cluster, whose formation has probably been induced by the shock front from the nearby HII region Sh2-228.

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arXiv2003

The infrared supernova rate in starburst galaxies

We report the results of our ongoing search for extincted supernovae (SNe) at near-infrared wavelengths. We have monitored at 2.2 micron a sample of 46 Luminous Infrared Galaxies and detected 4 SNe. The number of detections is still small but sufficient to provide the first estimate of supernova rate at near-infrared wavelengths. We measure a SN rate ofv 7.6+/-3.8 SNu which is an order of magnitude larger than observed in quiescent galaxies. On the other hand, the observed near-infrared rate is still a factor 3-10 smaller than that estimated from the far-infrared luminosity of the galaxies. Among various possibilities, the most likely scenario is that dust extinction is so high (Av>30) to obscure most SNe even in the near-IR. The role of type Ia SNe is also discussed within this context. We derive the type Ia SN rate as a function of the stellar mass of the galaxy and find a sharp increase toward galaxies with higher activity of star formation. This suggests that a significant fraction of type Ia SNe are associated with young stellar populations. Finally, as a by-product, we give the average K-band light curve of core-collapse SNe based on all the existing data, and review the relation between SN rate and far-infrared luminosity.

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arXiv2002

Discovery of New Milky Way Star Clusters Candidates in the 2MASS Point Source Catalog

A systematic search of the 2MASS point source catalog, covering 47% of the sky, was carried out aiming to reveal any hidden globular clusters in our Galaxy. Eight new star clusters were discovered by a search algorithm based on finding peaks in the apparent stellar surface density, and a visual inspection of their vicinities yielded additional two. They all are concentrated toward the Galactic plane and are hidden behind up to Av=20 mag which accounts for their late discovery. The majority of new clusters are associated with H II regions or unidentified IRAS sources suggesting that they are young, probably similar to Arches or open clusters. Only one candidate has morphology similar to a globular cluster and the verification of its nature will require deeper observations with higher angular resolution than the 2MASS data.

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arXiv2002

The relation between the mid-infrared emission and Black Hole Mass in Active Galactic Nuclei: A direct way to probe black hole growth?

We use a large, heterogeneous sample of local active galactic nuclei (AGN) that includes Seyfert 1s, Seyfert 2s and PG quasars to investigate for the first time the relation between black hole mass (M_BH) and mid-infrared nuclear emission. We find a clear relation between M_BH and the 10 micron nuclear luminosity for these local AGNs. There are no significant differences between type 1 and type 2 objects, implying that the reprocessing of the 10 micron nuclear emission is not severely affected by geometric and optical depth effects. We also confirm that M_BH is related to the 2-10keV X-ray luminosity, but only for the Compton thin galaxies. We present a theoretical basis for these empirical relations and discuss possible reasons for the observed scatter. Our results show that rest-frame 10 micron and hard X-ray luminosities (especially the former, which is applicable to all AGN types) can be powerful tools for conducting a census of black hole masses at high redshift and for probing their cosmological evolution.

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arXiv2000

The Red Stellar Contents of Three Selected Fields of The Local Group Dwarf Irregular Galaxy IC1613

We present a moderately-deep JK photometry for three selected areas of the dwarf irregular galaxy IC1613. The color-magnitude diagrams contain a mixture of red supergiants, asymptotic giant branch stars and the brightest red giant stars. The red supergiants are massive (20 - 25 M_\odot) and young -with ages between 8 and 25 Myr. The most important result is the evidence of the decreasing density of the intermediate age AGB population in the vicinity of the HII regions in the galaxy. We also find age differences between AGB stars in the main body of the galaxy and those near the HII regions in the North-East. The former span a range in ages between 1 and 10 Gyr, while the latter are younger than 1 Gyr. Using the period-luminosity relation derived by Madore & Freedman (1991) and JK magnitudes of the Cepheid variable V20, we calculated (m-M)_K = 24.37+-0.2. The recently discovered Nova (King et al. 1999) was identified in Field III. Its presence of our images and its brightness questioned its classification as a nova.

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arXiv1997

Three contributions to the "A Half Century of Stellar Pulsation Interpretations" proceedings

Paper I: "RR Lyrae Variables in Globular Clusters and the Second-Parameter Phenomenon" Authors: M. Catelan, A. V. Sweigart, J. Borissova Abstract: We propose to use RR Lyrae variables in globular clusters to probe the origin of the second-parameter phenomenon. Paper II: "New Possible Variables in the Outer-Halo Globular Cluster Palomar 3" Authors: J. Borissova, N. Spassova, M. Catelan, V. D. Ivanov Abstract: We present a list of ten possible variable stars in the globular cluster Pal 3. Seven are new suspected variables. The variability of the RR Lyr candidate reported by Burbidge & Sandage (1958), as well as of the Pop. II Cepheid and RR Lyr from Gratton & Ortolani (1984), are confirmed. Paper III: "On the Production of Bright RR Lyrae Variables in Metal-Rich Globular Clusters" Authors: A. V. Sweigart, M. Catelan Abstract: See astro-ph/9708174.

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