arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
arXiv 1506.01097astro-ph.GA
收藏

M31内球存在中等年龄恒星星族的测光证据

Photometric Evidence of an Intermediate-age Stellar Population in the Inner Bulge of M31

Hui Dong, Zhiyuan Li, Q. Daniel Wang, Tod R. Lauer, Knut A. G. Olsen, Abhijit Saha, Julianne J. Dalcanton, Benjamin F. Williams

摘要:

通过研究哈勃空间望远镜WFC 3和ACS观测中的恒星星族,我们探索了M31核球在投影长轴半径为180”(~680 pc)范围内的聚集历史。通过比较近紫外波段与光学波段形成的颜色被发现随着长轴半径的增加而变得更蓝,这与预测的相反,如果近紫外光的唯一来源是具有负径向金属梯度的旧极端水平分支恒星。光谱能量分布拟合需要一个富含金属的中间年龄的恒星星族(3亿年至1 Gyr的年龄,~太阳金属丰度),除了占主导地位的老人口。老恒星星族的年龄和金属丰度的径向梯度与以前的工作一致。对于中年人口,我们发现年龄随着半径的增加而增加,并且在距离中心680 pc处的质量分数增加到2%。我们排除污染的M31磁盘和/或晕作为这个人口的主要来源。因此,我们的结果表明,中等年龄的恒星存在于M31中心5英寸(19秒差距)之外,并贡献了核球总恒星质量的~1%。这些恒星可能与M31核球的长期增长有关。

英文摘要:

We explore the assembly history of the M31 bulge within a projected major-axis radius of 180" (~680 pc) by studying its stellar populations in Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 and ACS observations. Colors formed by comparing near-ultraviolet vs. optical bands are found to become bluer with increasing major-axis radius, which is opposite to that predicted if the sole sources of near-ultraviolet light were old extreme horizontal branch stars with a negative radial gradient in metallicity. Spectral energy distribution fits require a metal-rich intermediate-age stellar population (300 Myr to 1 Gyr old, ~solar metallicity) in addition to the dominant old population. The radial gradients in age and metallicity of the old stellar population are consistent with those in previous works. For the intermediate-age population, we find an increase in age with radius and a mass fraction that increases up to 2% at 680 pc away from the center. We exclude contamination from the M31 disk and/or halo as the main origin for this population. Our results thus suggest that intermediate-age stars exist beyond the central 5" (19 pc) of M31 and contribute ~1% of the total stellar mass in the bulge. These stars could be related to the secular growth of the M31 bulge.

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。

↑