arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
arXiv周末暂无论文更新,休息一下吧,周末愉快~~
arXiv 0805.3161astro-ph
收藏

M3(NGC 5272)水平支星质量分布的半经验研究

A Semi-Empirical Study of the Mass Distribution of Horizontal Branch Stars in M3 (NGC 5272)

A. A. R. Valcarce, M. Catelan

摘要:

球状星团中的水平分支(HB)星为我们提供了一个探索红巨星中发生的质量损失机制的机会。对于M3(NGC 5272),HB质量分布的不同形状已经被提出,包括高斯和明显双峰的替代方案。在这里,我们研究的质量分布HB星在M3的演化轨迹和光度观测比较。因此,我们的方法是一个半经验的性质,因为它描述的质量分布,是从典型的恒星演化预测的恒星分布在CMD的立场上的青睐。我们定位,为每一个单独的HB星,进化的轨道,其距离恒星的观测到的颜色和大小是最小的。人工测试表明,我们的方法将能够检测到双峰质量分布,如果存在。我们研究了考虑到进化速度的不同程序的影响,并得出结论,它们对推断的质量分布的影响很小。我们发现,高斯形状,虽然提供了一个合理的第一近似值,未能占M3的HB质量分布的详细形状:后者可能有偏度和峰度,稍微偏离一个完美的高斯解决方案。或者,朝向分布两翼的恒星过多也可以用双峰分布来解释,在双峰分布中,低质量模式和高质量模式都是正常的,前者明显比后者宽。然而,我们也表明,推断的进化时间分布与理论预期不一致。这一结果证实了三套独立的HB模型的基础上,表明后者低估了从零年龄HB进化的影响。(节略)

英文摘要:

Horizontal branch (HB) stars in globular clusters offer us a probe of the mass loss mechanisms taking place in red giants. For M3 (NGC 5272), different shapes for the HB mass distribution have been suggested, including Gaussian and sharply bimodal alternatives. Here we study the mass distribution of HB stars in M3 by comparing evolutionary tracks and photometric observations. Our approach is thus of a semi-empirical nature, describing as it does the mass distribution that is favored from the standpoint of canonical stellar evolutionary predictions for the distribution of stars across the CMD. We locate, for each individual HB star, the evolutionary track whose distance from the star's observed color and magnitude is a minimum. Artificial tests reveal that our method would be able to detect a bimodal mass distribution, if present. We study the impact of different procedures for taking into account the evolutionary speed, and conclude that they have but a small effect upon the inferred mass distribution. We find that a Gaussian shape, though providing a reasonable first approximation, fails to account for the detailed shape of M3's HB mass distribution: the latter may have skewness and kurtosis that deviate slightly from a perfectly Gaussian solution. Alternatively, the excess of stars towards the wings of the distribution may also be accounted for in terms of a bimodal distribution in which both the low- and the high-mass modes are normal, the former being significantly wider than the latter. However, we also show that the inferred distribution of evolutionary times is inconsistent with theoretical expectations. This result is confirmed on the basis of three independent sets of HB models, suggesting that the latter underestimate the effects of evolution away from the zero-age HB. (abridged)

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

↑