• Title/Summary/Keyword: horizontal-branch stars

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The Effects of Nitrogen and Oxygen Abundance Variations on The Evolutionary Tracks of Low-Mass Stars

  • Na, Chongsam;Lee, Young-Wook;Han, Sang-Il;Bach, Kiehunn;Kim, Yong-Cheol
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.139.2-139.2
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    • 2012
  • Recent observations show that there are variations in light elements, such as C, N, O, and Na, between the sub-populations in most globular clusters in the Milky Way. In order to investigate their effects on the evolution of stars in globular clusters, we constructed new sets of isochrones and horizontal branch evolutionary tracks under different assumptions as to the abundance of N and O ([N/Fe] and [O/Fe], respectively). In this talk, we will present our preliminary results from these calculations.

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A Feature of Stellar Density Distribution within Tidal Radius of Globular Cluster NGC 6626 in the Bulge Direction

  • Chun, Sang-Hyun;Lim, Dong-Wook;Kim, Myo-Jin;Sohn, Young-Jong
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.35 no.2
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    • pp.82.1-82.1
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    • 2010
  • We have investigated the spatial configuration of stars within the tidal radius of metal poor globular cluster NGC 6626 in the bulge direction. Data were obtained in near-IR J,H,Ks bands with wide-field ($20'\times20'$) detector, WIRCam at CFHT. To trace the stellar density around target cluster, we sorted cluster's member stars by using a mask filtering algorithm and weighting the stars on the color-magnitude diagram. From the weighted surface density map, we found that the stellar spatial distributions within the tidal radius appear asymmetric and distorted features. Especially, we found that more prominent over-density features are extending toward the direction of Galactic plane rather than toward the directions of the Galactic center and its orbital motion. This orientation of the stellar density distribution can be interpreted with result of disk-shock effect of the Galaxy that the cluster had been experienced. Indeed, this over-density feature are well represented in the radial surface density profile for different angular sections. As one of the metal poor globular clusters with extended horizontal branch (EHB) in the bulge direction, NGC 6626 is kinematically decoupled from the normal clusters and known to have disk motion of peculiar motion. Thus, our result will be able to add further constraints to understand the origin of this cluster and the formation of bulge region in early universe.

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THE C-M DIAGRAM OF THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER, NGC 6752

  • Lee, See-Woo;Cannon, R.D.
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.15-26
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    • 1980
  • The BV-photographic photometry was made for 1714 stars (V<19.5) in NGC 6752. The C-M diagram of this cluster shows an unusually extended blue horizontal branch $(V=13.5{\sim}17.8)$ with a wide gap $(V=16{\sim}16.7)$ and the well defined giant branch with gaps at V=13.85 and 16.2. The turnoff point is defined at $V=17.25{\pm}0.15$ and (B-V) = $0.46{\pm}0.02$. If we take $V_{HB}=13.85$ for NGC 6752, then ${\Delta}V=2.80,\;(B-V)_{0,g}=0.76\;and\;{\Delta}V_{TO}=3.40$ and the chemical abundance is estimated to be [Fe/H]=-1.67 or $Z=4.3{\times}10^{-4}\;and\;Y=0.26$. Some other physical parameters of this cluster are derived and compared with those for the well observed clusters M 3, M 13, M 15 and M 92.

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The Presence of Two Distinct Red Giant Branches in the Globular Cluster NGC 1851

  • Han, Sang-Il;Lee, Young-Wook;Joo, Seok-Joo;Sohn, Sangmo Tony;Yoon, Suk-Jin;Kim, Hak-Sub;Lee, Jae-Woo
    • Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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    • 2009.10a
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    • pp.30.2-30.2
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    • 2009
  • There is a growing body of evidence for the presence of multiple stellar populations in some globular clusters, including NGC 1851. For most of these peculiar globular clusters, however, the evidence for the multiple red giant-branches (RGBs) having different heavy elemental abundances as observed in $\omega$ Centauri is hitherto lacking, although spreads in some lighter elements are reported. It is therefore not clear whether they also share the suggested dwarf galaxy origin of $\omega$ Cen or not. Here we show from the CTIO 4m UVI photometry of the globular cluster NGC 1851 that its RGB is clearly split into two in the U - I color. The two distinct RGB populations are also clearly separated in the abundance of heavy elements as traced by Calcium, suggesting that the type II supernovae enrichment is also responsible, in addition to the pollutions of lighter elements by intermediate mass asymptotic giant branch stars or fast-rotating massive stars. The RGB split, however, is not shown in the V - I color, as indicated by previous observations. Our stellar population models show that this and the presence of bimodal horizontal-branch distribution in NGC 1851 can be naturally reproduced if the metal-rich second generation stars are also enhanced in helium.

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THE OOSTERHOFF PERIOD GROUPS AND MULTIPLE POPULATIONS IN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS

  • JANG, SOHEE;LEE, YOUNG-WOOK;JOO, SEOK-JOO;NA, CHONGSAM
    • Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.267-268
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    • 2015
  • One of the long-standing problems in modern astronomy is the curious division of globular clusters (GCs) into two groups, according to the mean period (<$P_{ab}$>) of type ab RR Lyrae variables. In light of the recent discovery of multiple populations in GCs, we suggest a new model explaining the origin of the Sandage period-shift and the difference in mean period of type ab RR Lyrae variables between the two Oosterhoff groups. In our models, the instability strip in the metal-poor group II clusters, such as M15, is populated by second generation stars (G2) with enhanced helium and CNO abundances, while the RR Lyraes in the relatively metal-rich group I clusters like M3 are mostly produced by first generation stars (G1) without these enhancements. This population shift within the instability strip with metallicity can create the observed period-shift between the two groups, since both helium and CNO abundances play a role in increasing the period of RR Lyrae variables. The presence of more metal-rich clusters having Oosterhoff-intermediate characteristics, such as NGC 1851, as well as of most metal-rich clusters having RR Lyraes with the longest periods (group III) can also be reproduced, as more helium-rich third and later generations of stars (G3) penetrate into the instability strip with further increase in metallicity. Therefore, although there are systems where the suggested population shift cannot be a viable explanation, for the most general cases, our models predict that RR Lyraes are produced mostly by G1, G2, and G3, respectively, for the Oosterhoff groups I, II, and III.

HST/WFPC2 Imaging of the Dwarf Satellites And XI and And XIII : HB Morphology and RR Lyraes

  • Yang, Soung-Chul;Sarajedini, Ata
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.68.1-68.1
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    • 2012
  • We present a comprehensive study of the stellar populations in two faint M31 dwarf satellites, And XI and And XIII. Using deep archival images from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) onboard the Hubble Space Telepscope (HST), we characterize the horizontal branch (HB) morphologies and the RR Lyrae (RRL) populations of these two faint dwarf satellites. Our new template light curve fitting routine (RRFIT) detected RRL populations from both galaxies. The mean periods of $RR_{ab}$ (RR0) stars in And XI and And XIII are < $P_{ab}$ > = $0.621{\pm}0.040$, and < $P_{ab}$ > = $0.648{\pm}0.038$ respectively. Even though the RRL populations show a lack of $RR_{ab}$ stars with high amplitudes (Amp(V) > 1.0 mag) and relatively short periods ($P_{ab}$ ~ 0.5 days), their period - V band amplitude (P-Amp(V)) relations track the lower part of the general P-Amp(V) trend in the M31 outer halo RRL populations. The metallicities of $RR_{ab}$ stars were calculated via the [Fe/H]-log $P_{ab}$-Amp(V) relationship of Alcock et al. The metallicities thus obtained ($[Fe/H]_{And}$ $_{XI}=-1.75%$; $[Fe/H]_{And}$ $_{XIII}=-1.74$) are consistent with the values calculated from the RGB slope indicating that our measurements are not significantly affected by the evolutionary effects of RRL stars. We discuss the origins of And XI and And XIII based on a comparative analysis of the luminosity-metallicity (L-M) relation of Local Group dwarf galaxies.

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Absolute calibration of near-infrared Period-Luminosity-Metallicity relations for RR Lyrae variables using Gaia EDR3

  • Bhardwaj, Anupam;Rejkuba, Marina;Yang, Soung-Chul
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.46 no.1
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    • pp.35.1-35.1
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    • 2021
  • RR Lyrae stars are sensitive probe for the precision stellar astrophysics and also for the cosmic distance scale thanks to their well-defined near-infrared Period-Luminosity relations (PLRs). These horizontal branch variables can be used for primary calibration of the first-rung of population II distance ladder providing an evaluation of the ongoing tension between Cepheid-Supernovae based Hubble constant and the Planck results. Therefore, absolute calibration of RR Lyrae PLRs is now crucial to complement or test the tip of the red giant branch based distances, and in turn, population II star based Hubble constant measurements. While the pulsation models of RR Lyrae can reproduce most observables, they predict a significant metallicity effect on their JHKs-band PLRs that is inconsistent with so-far limited observational studies. We remedy this inconsistency of metallicity dependence in RR Lyrae PLRs by combining their near-infrared observations in the globular clusters of different mean-metallicities with the new parallaxes from the Gaia early data release 3 (EDR3). Our empirical results on Period-Luminosity-Metallicity (PLZ)relations are consistent with theoretical predictions but the precision of absolute calibrations is still affected by the parallax uncertainties and the systematic zero-point offset present in the Gaia EDR3.

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THE EFFECT OF HELIUM-ENHANCED STELLAR POPULATIONS ON THE ULTRAVIOLET-UPTURN PHENOMENON OF EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES

  • Chung, Chul;Yoon, Suk-Jin;Lee, Young-Wook
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.36 no.2
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    • pp.67.1-67.1
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    • 2011
  • Recent observations and modeling of globular clusters with multiple populations strongly indicate the presence of super helium-rich subpopulations in old stellar systems. Motivated by this, we have constructed new population synthesis models with and without helium-enhanced subpopulations to investigate their impact on the UV-upturn phenomenon of quiescent early-type galaxies. We find that our models with helium-enhanced subpopulations can naturally reproduce the strong UV-upturns observed in giant elliptical galaxies assuming an age similar to that of old globular clusters in the Milky Way. The major source of far-UV (FUV) flux, in this model, is relatively metal-poor and helium-enhanced hot horizontal branch stars and their progeny. The Burstein et al. (1988) relation of the FUV - V color with metallicity is also explained either by the variation of the fraction of helium-enhanced subpopulations or by the spread in mean age of stellar populations in early-type galaxies.

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COLOR GRADIENTS WITHIN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS: RESTRICED NUMERICAL SIMULATION

  • Sohn, Young-Jong;Chun, Mun-Suk
    • Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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    • v.14 no.1
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    • pp.1-17
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    • 1997
  • The results of a restricted numerical simulation for the color gradients within globular clusters have been presented. The standard luminosity function of M3 and Salperter's initial mass functions were used to generate model clusters as a fundamental population. Color gradients with the sample clusters for both King and power law cusp models of surface brightness distributions are discussed in the case of using the standard luminosity function. The dependence of color gradients on several parameters for the simulations with Salpter's initial mass functions, such as slope of initial mass functions, cluster ages, metallicities, concentration parameters of King model, and slopes of power law, are also discussed. No significant radial color gradients are shown to the sample clusters which are regenerated by a random number generation technique with various parameters in both of King and power law cusp models of surface brightness distributions. Dynamical mass segregation and stellar evolution of horizontal branch stars and blue stragglers should be included for the general case of model simulations to show the observed radial color gradients within globular clusters.

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THE EVOLUTION OF THE GALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTERS.: I. METAL ABUNDANCE CALIBRATIONS

  • Lee, See-Woo;Park, Nam-Kyu
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.17 no.2
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    • pp.69-103
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    • 1984
  • Five different calibrations of metal abundances of globular clusters are examined and these are compared with metallicity ranking parameters such as $(Sp)_c$, . Q39 and IR-indices. Except for the calibration $[Fe/H]_H$ by the high dispersion echelle analysis. the other calibration scales are correlated with the morphological parameters of red giant branch. In the $[Fe/H]_H$-scale. the clusters later than ${\sim}F8$ have nearly a constant metal abundance. $[Fe/H]_H{\simeq}-1.05$, regradless of morphological characteristics of horizontal branch and red giant branch. By the two fundamental calibration scales of $[Fe/H]_L$ (derived by the low dispersion analysis) and $[Fe/H]_{{\Delta}s}$ (derived by the spectral analysis of RR Lyrae stars). the globular clusters are divided into the halo clusters with [Fe/H]<-1.0 and the disk clusters confined within the galactocentric distance ${\tau}_G=10\;kpc$ and galactic plane distance |z|=3 kpc. In this case the abundance gradient is given by d[Fe/H]/$dr_G{\approx}-0.05\;kpc^{-1}$ and d[Fe/H]/$d|z|{\simeq}-0.08\;kpc^{-1}$ within ${\tau}_G=20\;kpc$ and |z|=10 kpc, respectively. According to these characteristics of the spatial distribution of globular clusters. the chemical evolution of the galactic globular clusters can be accounted for by the two-zone (disk-halo) slow collapse model when the $[Fe/H]_L$-or $[Fe/H]_{{\Delta}s}$-scale is applied. In the case of $[Fe/H]_H$-scale, the one-zone fast collapse model is preferred for the evolution of globular clusters.

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