scholarly journals A stellar census in globular clusters with MUSE: A spectral catalogue of emission-line sources

2019 ◽  
Vol 631 ◽  
pp. A118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Göttgens ◽  
Tim-Oliver Husser ◽  
Sebastian Kamann ◽  
Stefan Dreizler ◽  
Benjamin Giesers ◽  
...  

Aims. Globular clusters produce many exotic stars due to a much higher frequency of dynamical interactions in their dense stellar environments. Some of these objects were observed together with several hundred thousand other stars in our MUSE survey of 26 Galactic globular clusters. Assuming that at least a few exotic stars have exotic spectra (i.e. spectra that contain emission lines), we can use this large spectroscopic data set of over a million stellar spectra as a blind survey to detect stellar exotica in globular clusters. Methods. To detect emission lines in each spectrum, we modelled the expected shape of an emission line as a Gaussian curve. This template was used for matched filtering on the differences between each observed 1D spectrum and its fitted spectral model. The spectra with the most significant detections of Hα emission are checked visually and cross-matched with published catalogues. Results. We find 156 stars with Hα emission, including several known cataclysmic variables (CV) and two new CVs, pulsating variable stars, eclipsing binary stars, the optical counterpart of a known black hole, several probable sub-subgiants and red stragglers, and 21 background emission-line galaxies. We find possible optical counterparts to 39 X-ray sources, as we detected Hα emission in several spectra of stars that are close to known positions of Chandra X-ray sources. This spectral catalogue can be used to supplement existing or future X-ray or radio observations with spectra of potential optical counterparts to classify the sources.

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (S351) ◽  
pp. 367-376
Author(s):  
Maureen van den Berg

AbstractThe features and make up of the population of X-ray sources in Galactic star clusters reflect the properties of the underlying stellar environment. Cluster age, mass, stellar encounter rate, binary frequency, metallicity, and maybe other properties as well, determine to what extent we can expect a contribution to the cluster X-ray emission from low-mass X-ray binaries, millisecond pulsars, cataclysmic variables, and magnetically active binaries. Sensitive X-ray observations withXMM-Newton and certainlyChandra have yielded new insights into the nature of individual sources and the effects of dynamical encounters. They have also provided a new perspective on the collective X-ray properties of clusters, in which the X-ray emissivities of globular clusters and old open clusters can be compared to each other and to those of other environments. I will review our current understanding of cluster X-ray sources, focusing on star clusters older than about 1 Gyr, illustrated with recent results.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 265
Author(s):  
Jian-Ping Xiong ◽  
Bo Zhang ◽  
Chao Liu ◽  
Jiao Li ◽  
Yong-Heng Zhao ◽  
...  

Abstract The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) started a median-resolution spectroscopic (MRS, R ∼7500) survey since October 2018. The main scientific goals of MRS, including binary stars, pulsators and other variable stars, were launched with a time-domain spectroscopic survey. However, the systematic errors, including the bias induced from wavelength calibration and the systematic difference between different spectrographs, have to be carefully considered during radial velocity measurement. In this work, we provide a technique to correct the systematics in the wavelength calibration based on the relative radial velocity measurements from LAMOST MRS spectra. We show that, for the stars with multi-epoch spectra, the systematic bias which is induced from the exposures on different nights can be corrected well for LAMOST MRS in each spectrograph. In addition, the precision of radial velocity zero-point of multi-epoch time-domain observations reaches below 0.5 km s−1. As a by-product, we also give the constant star candidates**, which can be the secondary radial-velocity standard star candidates of LAMOST MRS time-domain surveys.


2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (4) ◽  
pp. 4783-4790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen C Dage ◽  
Stephen E Zepf ◽  
Arash Bahramian ◽  
Jay Strader ◽  
Thomas J Maccarone ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT RZ2109 is the first of several extragalactic globular clusters shown to host an ultraluminous X-ray source. RZ2109 is particularly notable because optical spectroscopy shows it has broad, luminous [O iii] λλ4959,5007 emission, while also having no detectable hydrogen emission. The X-ray and optical characteristics of the source in RZ2109 make it a good candidate for being a stellar mass black hole accreting from a white dwarf donor (i.e. an ultracompact black hole X-ray binary). In this paper we present optical spectroscopic monitoring of the [O iii]5007 emission line from 2007 to 2018. We find that the flux of the emission line is significantly lower in recent observations from 2016 to 2018 than it was in earlier observations in 2007–2011. We also explore the behaviour of the emission line shape over time. Both the core and the wings of the emission line decline over time, with some evidence that the core declines more rapidly than the wings. However, the most recent observations (in 2019) unexpectedly show the emission line core rebrightening


1999 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 460-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. F. Beaulieu ◽  
R. Elson ◽  
G. Gilmore ◽  
R. A. Johnson ◽  
N. Tanvir ◽  
...  

We present details of the database from a large Cycle 7 HST project to study the formation and evolution of rich star clusters in the LMC (see Elson et al., this volume). Our data set, which includes NICMOS, WFPC2 and STIS images of 8 clusters, will enable us to derive deep luminosity functions for the clusters and to investigate the universality of the stellar IMF. We will look for age spreads in the youngest clusters, quantify the population of binary stars in the cores of the clusters and at the half-mass radii, and follow the development of mass segregation.


1994 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 709-714
Author(s):  
G. Comte ◽  
C. Surace

We present a new survey of emission line galaxies, performed with the ESO 1 m Schmidt telescope equipped with the 4° objective prism using IIIa-J photographic emulsion. The plates are digitized with the MAMA microdensitometer. A subsequent reduction of the block scans gives redshifts with a mean accuracy of 160 km/s−1, and spectrophotometric measurements of the intensity and equivalent widths of the principal emission lines. A brief discussion is given of the possible extension of quantitative reduction of slitless spectroscopy to archive plates and future large CCD array frames.


2004 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 75-76
Author(s):  
N. A. Webb ◽  
B. Gendre ◽  
D. Barret

AbstractGlobular clusters (GCs) harbour a large number of close binaries which are hard to identify optically due to high stellar densities. Observing these GCs in X-rays, in which the compact binaries are bright, diminishes the over-crowding problem. Using the new generation of X-ray observatories, it is possible to identify populations of neutron star low mass X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables and millisecond pulsars as well as other types of binaries. We present the spectra of a variety of binaries that we have identified in four GCs observed by XMM-Newton. We show that through population studies we can begin to understand the formation of individual classes of binaries in GCs and hence start to unfold the complex evolutionary paths of these systems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 625 ◽  
pp. A56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain A. Meyer ◽  
Timothée Delubac ◽  
Jean-Paul Kneib ◽  
Frédéric Courbin

We present a sample of 12 quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) that potentially act as strong gravitational lenses on background emission line galaxies (ELG) or Lyman-α emitters (LAEs) selected through a systematic search of the 297 301 QSOs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III Data Release 12. Candidates were identified by looking for compound spectra, where emission lines at a redshift larger than that of the quasar can be identified in the residuals after a QSO spectral template is subtracted from the observed spectra. The narrow diameter of BOSS fibers (2″) then ensures that the object responsible for the additional emission lines must lie close to the line of sight of the QSO and hence provides a high probability of lensing. Among the 12 candidates identified, nine have definite evidence for the presence of a background ELG identified by at least four higher-redshift nebular emission lines. The remaining three probable candidates present a strong asymmetrical emission line attributed to a background Lyman-α emitter (LAE). The QSO-ELG (QSO-LAE) lens candidates have QSO lens redshifts in the range 0.24 ≲ zQSO ≲ 0.66 (0.75 ≲ zQSO ≲ 1.23 ) and background galaxy redshifts in the range 0.48 ≲ zS, ELG ≲ 0.94 (2.17 ≲ zS, LAE ≲ 4.48). We show that the algorithmic search is complete at > 90% for QSO-ELG systems, whereas it falls at 40−60% for QSO-LAE, depending on the redshift of the source. Upon confirmation of the lensing nature of the systems, this sample may quadruple the number of known QSOs acting as strong lenses. We have determined the completeness of our search, which allows future studies to compute lensing probabilities of galaxies by QSOs and differentiate between different QSO models. Future imaging of the full sample and lens modelling offers a unique approach to study and constrain key properties of QSOs.


1979 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 151-153
Author(s):  
T. D. Kinman

Four methods for finding emission-line galaxies have been compared. Method (a) uses the ultraviolet excess, as found either by filter photography (Haro 1956) or by objective prism spectra (Markarian 1967). glanco (1974) introduced a thin prism with the CTIO Schmidt (1740 Å mm-1 at Hβ) which with IIIa-J plates [Method (b)] gave enough resolution for Smith (1975) and MacAlpine et al. (1977a, 1977b) to detect and classify galaxies by strong emission lines. Following a suggestion by McCarthy that even higher dispersion might be useful, I have used the CTIO Schmidt with [Method (c)] the 4° prism, a GGl+55 filter and IIIa-J emulsion and with [Method (d)] the 10° prism, an RG630 filter and IIIa-F emulsion. These latter give about 400 Å mm-1 at Hβ and Hα respectively which improves the visibility of emission lines against the galaxy continuum so that [0111] 5007 and 4959 and Hβ can be seen on the green plates and Hα and [SII] 6725 can be seen on the red plates.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S246) ◽  
pp. 301-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Verbunt ◽  
Dave Pooley ◽  
Cees Bassa

AbstractLow-mass X-ray binaries, recycled pulsars, cataclysmic variables and magnetically active binaries are observed as X-ray sources in globular clusters. We discuss the classification of these systems, and find that some presumed active binaries are brighter than expected. We discuss a new statistical method to determine from observations how the formation of X-ray sources depends on the number of stellar encounters and/or on the cluster mass. We show that cluster mass is not a proxy for the encounter number, and that optical identifications are essential in proving the presence of primordial binaries among the low-luminosity X-ray sources.


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