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arXiv 0909.2253astro-ph.SRastro-ph.GA
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II白矮星的质量

The Masses of Population II White Dwarfs

Jason S. Kalirai, D. Saul Davis, Harvey B. Richer, P. Bergeron, Marcio Catelan, Brad M. S. Hansen, R. Michael Rich

摘要:

球状星团是银河系中最早形成的恒星星族之一,因此它们最初的恒星类型光谱中只有一小部分至今仍在主序星上燃烧氢。几乎所有出生时质量大于0.8 M太阳的恒星都演化形成了这些系统的白矮星冷却序列,这些残留物的分布和性质独特地提供了与现在演化的祖星性质有关的线索。通过超深HST成像观测,最近发现了附近四个银河系球状星团中丰富的白矮星种群,并发现它们在H-R图的淡蓝色区域中延伸了令人印象深刻的5 - 8等。在本文中,我们的特点,这些人口II残余物的性质,提出了第一个直接测量的个别白矮星附近的冷却序列的尖端在最近的银河系球状星团,M4。基于Gemini/GMOS和Keck/LRIS多目标光谱观测,我们的结果表明,0.8M太阳星族II主序星演化形成了0.53 +/-0.01M太阳白矮星。我们讨论了这一结果的影响,因为它涉及到我们的理解恒星结构和演化的人口II恒星和年龄的星系晕,测量与白矮星冷却理论。

英文摘要:

Globular star clusters are among the first stellar populations to have formed in the Milky Way, and thus only a small sliver of their initial spectrum of stellar types are still burning hydrogen on the main-sequence today. Almost all of the stars born with more mass than 0.8 M_sun have evolved to form the white dwarf cooling sequence of these systems, and the distribution and properties of these remnants uniquely holds clues related to the nature of the now evolved progenitor stars. With ultra-deep HST imaging observations, rich white dwarf populations of four nearby Milky Way globular clusters have recently been uncovered, and are found to extend an impressive 5 - 8 magnitudes in the faint-blue region of the H-R diagram. In this paper, we characterize the properties of these population II remnants by presenting the first direct mass measurements of individual white dwarfs near the tip of the cooling sequence in the nearest of the Milky Way globulars, M4. Based on Gemini/GMOS and Keck/LRIS multiobject spectroscopic observations, our results indicate that 0.8 M_sun population II main-sequence stars evolving today form 0.53 +/- 0.01 M_sun white dwarfs. We discuss the implications of this result as it relates to our understanding of stellar structure and evolution of population II stars and for the age of the Galactic halo, as measured with white dwarf cooling theory.

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