• Title/Summary/Keyword: horizontal-branch stars

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IS CALCIUM II TRIPLET A GOOD METALLICITY INDICATOR OF GLOBULAR CLUSTERS IN EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES?

  • CHUNG, CHUL;YOON, SUK-JIN;LEE, SANG-YOON;LEE, YOUNG-WOOK
    • Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.489-490
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    • 2015
  • We present population synthesis models for the calcium II triplet (CaT), currently the most popular metallicity indicator, based on high-resolution empirical spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Our new CaT models, based on empirical SEDs, show a linear correlation below [Fe/H] ~ -0.5, but the linear relation breaks down in the metal-rich regime by converging to the same equivalent width. This relation shows good agreement with the observed CaT of globular clusters (GCs) in NGC 1407 and the Milky Way. However, a model based on theoretical SEDs does not show this feature of the CaT and fails to reproduce observed GCs in the metal-rich regime. This linear relation may cause inaccurate metallicity determination for metal-rich stellar populations. We have also confirmed that the effect of horizontal-branch stars on the CaT is almost negligible in models based on both empirical and theoretical SEDs. Our new empirical model may explain the difference between the color distributions and CaT distributions of GCs in various early-type galaxies. Based on our model, we claim that the CaT is not a good metallicity indicator for simple stellar populations in the metal-rich regime.

The Effect of Horizontal Branch Stars on the Age-Dating of Simple Stellar Populations

  • Chung, Chul;Lee, Young-Wook;Yoon, Suk-Jin
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.35 no.2
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    • pp.81.2-81.2
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    • 2010
  • Based on Yonsei Evolutionary Population Synthesis (YEPS), we have investigated the effect of horizontal branch stars (HBs) on the age-dating of simple stellar populations (SSPs). A detailed comparison of YEPS SSP with H_beta of M31 globular clusters (GCs) reveals (1) that the age dating without HB prescription gives ~5 Gyr younger ages for metal-poor M31 GCs, and (2) the age dating with HB prescription does not need any age gap between metal-poor and metal-rich GCs. This result is parallel to the well-known discrepancy in ages derived from integrated Balmer strengths and isochrone fittings of Milky Way GCs (MWGCs). Without a synthetic blue HB model, we cannot explain strong Balmer indices of metal-poor and old MWGCs. Our results suggest that the SSP model with well calibrated HBs should be used for the age-dating of SSPs to avoid a serious underestimation of ages due to the strong Balmer indices.

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BLUE STRAGGLERS AND CLUMP STARS IN M67

  • Jung, Jae-Hoon;Lee, See-Woo
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.17 no.1
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    • pp.37-49
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    • 1984
  • UBV photoelectric observations were carried out for bright stars in M67 and the masses of clump stars and giant stars were derived in M67 and the other old open clusters, NGC 188, NGC 2420, NGC 2506 and IC 4651. The mean mass of clump stars in the five clusters ranges $m=0.5{\sim}1.0m_{\odot}$, and its ratio to the mean mass of giant stars is about 0.83. The number ratio of blue stragglers to the stars brighter than the turn-off of main sequence increases with cluster age whereas that of clump stars decreases with age. These results imply that the clump stars and blue stragglers are at the phase of horizontal branch evolution.

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New insights on the origin of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters

  • Kim, Jaeyeon;Lee, Young-Wook
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.43 no.1
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    • pp.46.1-46.1
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    • 2018
  • In order to investigate the origin of multiple stellar populations in the halo and bulge of the Milky Way, we have constructed chemical evolution models for the low-mass proto-Galactic subsystems such as globular clusters. Unlike previous studies, we assume that supernova blast waves undergo blowout without expelling the pre-enriched gas, while relatively slow winds of massive stars, together with the winds and ejecta from low and intermediate mass asymptotic-giant-branch stars, are all locally retained in these less massive systems. We find that the observed Na-O anti-correlations in metal-poor GCs can be reproduced when multiple episodes of starbursts are allowed to continue in these subsystems. A specific form of star formation history with decreasing time intervals between the stellar generations, however, is required to obtain this result, which is in good agreement with the parameters obtained from our stellar evolution models for the horizontal-branch. The "mass budget problem" is also much alleviated by our models without ad-hoc assumptions on star formation efficiency and initial mass function. We also applied these models to investigate the origin of super helium-rich red clump stars in the metal-rich bulge as recently suggested by Lee et al. (2015). We find that chemical enrichments by the winds of massive stars can naturally reproduce the required helium enhancement (dY/dZ = 6) for the second-generation stars. Disruption of proto-globular clusters in a hierarchical merging paradigm would have provided helium enhanced stars to the bulge field.

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THE PHOTOGRAPIC PHOTOMETRY OF THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER NGC 6752

  • Lee, Kang-Hwan;Lee, See-Woo;Jeon, Young-Beom
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.153-167
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    • 1995
  • More than 22,300 stars in NGC 6752 were measured over the region of 5' < r < 23' in B and V AAT plates. The most of these are main sequence(MS) stars and about 130 blue horizontal branch(BHB) stars were detected. The C-M diagram of all measured stars shows gaps appearing at $V{\approx}15.^{m}2$ and $16.^{m}2$ along the red giant branch(RGB) and their appearance shown by Lee & Cannon(1980) is found to be independent of measured region. The bimodal distribution of BHB stars is confirmed again and a wide gap shown by Lee & Cannon(1980) at $V{\approx}16^m$ is clearly seen for stars in the outer part (8' < r < 13') in the cluster. It is noted, however, that this gap is occupied by about a dozen of BHB staIs located in the inner region (5' < r < 8'). The number ratio of bright BHB star (V < $15^m$) to faint BHB stars (V > $15^m$) decreases with increasing radial distance from the cluster center. Three faintest BHB stars were found, and two stars ($V{\approx}18.^{m}5$) of there are located in the inner region of $r{\approx}6'$ and the other faintest one ($V{\approx}19.^{m}3$) located in the outer part of $r{\approx}13'$. Also a bluest star of (B - V) $\approx$ -0.5 at $V{\approx}17.^{m}2$ is found but it is located at the outer part of $r{\approx}13'$ in NE region. Therefore, the membership of the faintest BHB star and bluest star is suspected. The luminosity function(LF) and mass function(MF) for NGC 6752 were derived for MS stars. The LF for stars of $M_v\;<\;6^m$ in the outer part of r > 8' shows a consistency with that derived by Penny & Dickens(1986).

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Building the Milky Way bulge from globular clusters: Evidence from low-resolution spectroscopy for the red clump stars

  • Hong, Seungsoo;Lim, Dongwook;Lee, Young-Wook
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.42 no.2
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    • pp.77.4-78
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    • 2017
  • The presence of double red clump (RC; metal-rich counterpart of horizontal-branch) in high latitude field of the Milky Way (MW) bulge is widely interpreted as evidence for an X-shaped structure originated from the bar instability. However, Lee et al. (2015) recently suggested an alternative model, according to which the double RC is metal-rich manifestation of multiple stellar population phenomenon observed in globular clusters (GCs). Here we show that stars in bright RC are enhanced in CN compared to those in faint RC from our low-resolution spectroscopy. CN traces N, and N-rich stars are also enhanced in Na and He in GCs. Since GCs are the only environment that produce second generation stars with enhanced N, Na, & He, this is a direct evidence that stars in the classical bulge component of the MW were mostly provided by proto-GCs.

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THE H$\beta$ INDEX AND THE AGES OF OLD STELLAR SYSTEMS

  • Yoon, Seok-Jin;Lee, Hyun-Chul;Lee, Young-Wook
    • Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.53-58
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    • 1998
  • The $H{\beta}$ and some metal line indices, such as Mg2, Fe52 of single-age and single-metallicity populations are computed based on the method of evolutionary population synthesis, with careful consideration of the variation of the horizontal-branch morphology with metallicity and age. We find (a) that while metal lines are little af-fected, the $H{\beta}$ index is severely enhanced (up to 30%)by the presence of the blue horizontal-branch stars, frustrating the current age-estimations from this index with out careful consideration of these stars, and (b) that there is a systematic trend in the sense that the globular clusters in giant elliptical galaxies appear to be older than those in our Galaxy by several billion years. We also calculate these indices for the stellar populations with a metallicity spread, by adopting metallicity distribution functions predicted by chemical evolution models. The comparison of the models with the observed indices of the central regions of the early-type galaxies yields the results (a) that the ages of the giant elliptical galaxies would be older than the previous estimations by several billion years, and (b) that there is a considerable age spread among elliptical galaxies, in the sense that the giant elliptical galaxies are older than small ones.

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NEAR-IR PHOTOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF HB, MSTO, AND SGB FOR METAL POOR GALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTERS

  • Kim, J.W.;Kang, A.;Shin, I.G.;Chun, S.H.;Sohn, Y.J.
    • Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.39-44
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    • 2007
  • We report photometric features of the HB, MSTO, and SGB for a set of metal-poor Galactic globular clusters on the near-IR CMDs. The magnitude and color of the MSTO and SGB are measured on the fiducial normal points of the CMDs by applying a polynomial fit. The near-IR luminosity functions of horizontal branch stars in the classical second parameter pair M3 and M13 indicate that HB stars in M13 are dominated by hot stars that are rotatively faint in the infrared, whereas HB stars in M3 are brighter than those in M13. The luminosity functions of HB stars in the observed bulge clusters, except for NGC 6717, show a trend that the fainter hot HB stars are dominated in the relatively metal-poor clusters while the relatively metal-rich clusters contain the brighter HB stars. It is suggestive that NGC 6717 would be an extreme example of the second-parameter phenomenon for the bulge globular clusters.