scholarly journals Blanco DECam Bulge Survey (BDBS) II: project performance, data analysis, and early science results

2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (2) ◽  
pp. 2357-2379
Author(s):  
Christian I Johnson ◽  
Robert Michael Rich ◽  
Michael D Young ◽  
Iulia T Simion ◽  
William I Clarkson ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Blanco DECam Bulge Survey (BDBS) imaged more than 200 sq deg of the Southern Galactic bulge using the ugrizY filters of the Dark Energy Camera, and produced point spread function photometry of approximately 250 million unique sources. In this paper, we present details regarding the construction and collation of survey catalogues, and also discuss the adopted calibration and dereddening procedures. Early science results are presented with a particular emphasis on the bulge metallicity distribution function and globular clusters. A key result is the strong correlation (σ ∼ 0.2 dex) between (u − i)o and [Fe/H] for bulge red clump giants. We utilized this relation to find that interior bulge fields may be well described by simple closed box enrichment models, but fields exterior to b ∼ −6° seem to require a secondary metal-poor component. Applying scaled versions of the closed box model to the outer bulge fields is shown to significantly reduce the strengths of any additional metal-poor components when compared to Gaussian mixture models. Additional results include: a confirmation that the u band splits the subgiant branch in M22 as a function of metallicity, the detection of possible extratidal stars along the orbits of M 22 and FSR 1758, and additional evidence that NGC 6569 may have a small but discrete He spread, as evidenced by red clump luminosity variations in the reddest bands. We do not confirm previous claims that FSR 1758 is part of a larger extended structure.

1980 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 459-460
Author(s):  
Gerald E. Kron ◽  
Katherine C. Gordon ◽  
Anthony V. Hewitt

Images of 68 globular clusters have been recorded in 125 exposures made with the electronic camera of the U.S. Naval Observatory on the 24-inch, 40-inch and 61-inch reflecting telescopes at the Flagstaff Station. The images were electronically malfocussed to allow the integration of light from the fainter cluster stars without saturation of the central portions of the brighter star images. Spacial information thus lost was partly regained by subsequent linear deconvolution of the cluster profiles by means of a star profile used as the point spread function.


1988 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 517-518
Author(s):  
J. B. Laird ◽  
M. P. Rupin ◽  
B. W. Carney ◽  
D. W. Latham ◽  
R. L. Kurucz

Metallicities have been determined for a chemically unbiased sample of field halo dwarf stars. Their metallicity distribution function is similar to the predictions of a simple model of chemical evolution, but somewhat different from that of globular clusters.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S317) ◽  
pp. 110-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. S. Da Costa

AbstractIn this contribution the hypothesis that the Galactic globular clusters with substantial internal [Fe/H] abundance ranges are the former nuclei of disrupted dwarf galaxies is discussed. Evidence considered includes the form of the metallicity distribution function, the occurrence of large diffuse outer envelopes in cluster density profiles, and the presence of ([s-process/Fe], [Fe/H]) correlations. The hypothesis is shown to be plausible but with the caveat that if significantly more than the current nine clusters known to have [Fe/H] spreads are found, then re-evaluation will be required.


2008 ◽  
Vol 484 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Paulin-Henriksson ◽  
A. Amara ◽  
L. Voigt ◽  
A. Refregier ◽  
S. L. Bridle

2002 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 146-148
Author(s):  
Juan C. Seguel ◽  
Doug Geisler ◽  
Myung Gyoon Lee ◽  
Sang Chul Kim ◽  
Ata Sarajedini ◽  
...  

Searching for globular cluster candidates in nearby galaxies such as M31 is the first step to study the characteristics of extragalactic globular cluster systems. Previous searches for M31 globular clusters were mostly based on visual inspection of photograpic plates. We have selected globular cluster candidates from a wide-field Washington CCD survey of M31, using various methods: color-magnitude diagrams, color-color diagrams, point spread function subtraction and visual inspection of the objects. The efficiency and accuracy of these methods for finding globular clusters are presented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (4) ◽  
pp. 4986-5002 ◽  
Author(s):  
K Youakim ◽  
E Starkenburg ◽  
N F Martin ◽  
G Matijevič ◽  
D S Aguado ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Pristine survey uses narrow-band photometry to derive precise metallicities down to the extremely metal-poor regime ($ \rm [Fe/H] \lt -3$), and currently consists of over 4 million FGK-type stars over a sky area of $\sim 2500\, \mathrm{deg}^2$. We focus our analysis on a subsample of ∼80 000 main-sequence turn-off stars with heliocentric distances between 6 and 20 kpc, which we take to be a representative sample of the inner halo. The resulting metallicity distribution function (MDF) has a peak at $ \rm [Fe/H] =-1.6$, and a slope of Δ(LogN)/$\Delta \rm [Fe/H] = 1.0 \pm 0.1$ in the metallicity range of $-3.4\; \lt\; \rm [Fe/H]\; \lt -2.5$. This agrees well with a simple closed-box chemical enrichment model in this range, but is shallower than previous spectroscopic MDFs presented in the literature, suggesting that there may be a larger proportion of metal-poor stars in the inner halo than previously reported. We identify the Monoceros/TriAnd/ACS/EBS/A13 structure in metallicity space in a low-latitude field in the anticentre direction, and also discuss the possibility that the inner halo is dominated by a single, large merger event, but cannot strongly support or refute this idea with the current data. Finally, based on the MDF of field stars, we estimate the number of expected metal-poor globular clusters in the Milky Way halo to be 5.4 for $ \rm [Fe/H]\; \lt\; -2.5$ and 1.5 for $ \rm [Fe/H]\; \lt\; -3$, suggesting that the lack of low-metallicity globular clusters in the Milky Way is not due simply to statistical undersampling.


1988 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 133-148
Author(s):  
Bruce W. Carney

Recent work on the chemistry and kinematics of the field halo population stars is reviewed, including the metallicity distribution function, elemental abundance patterns, primordial abundances, and their relations with stellar kinematics. The important role played by these stars in determining the ages of the globular clusters is discussed. A comparison is made between the kinematic and chemical properties of the field and cluster stars to ascertain if they share a common history.


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