我们对银河系三颗超暗矮（UFD）星系卫星——牧夫座I（Boo1）、牧夫座II（Boo2）和Segue I（Seg1）——外围的候选成员恒星开展了深入分析。此前受银河系前景星污染影响，这类外围恒星的研究难度较大。我们利用暗能量相机（DECam）的$u$波段测光数据推导金属丰度，以高效筛选UFD候选成员恒星。该方法在Boo1上得到验证：我们在5个半光半径之外识别出了已知的和新的候选成员恒星。随后我们将类似流程应用于Boo2和Seg1。研究结果暗示Boo1和Seg1存在潮汐特征的证据：Boo1的延展方向与其自行运动方向一致，Seg1存在一些远距离候选恒星，其中少数沿其延展方向和自行运动方向分布。我们在Boo2中发现两颗远距离恒星，符合候选成员恒星的特征。利用由\textit{Besançon}星系模型推导的前景污染率，我们为每颗候选成员恒星赋予了纯度估计值。我们建议对新识别的高纯度成员开展进一步光谱研究。本技术有望应用于未来在其他系统中探测大半径处候选成员恒星的工作，可结合鲁宾空间与时间巡天（Legacy Survey of Space and Time）以及DECam上新型窄带Ca HK滤光片这类对金属丰度敏感的滤光片来实现。
英文摘要：
We conducted an in-depth analysis of candidate member stars located in the peripheries of three ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxy satellites of the Milky Way: Boötes I (Boo1), Boötes II (Boo2), and Segue I (Seg1). Studying these peripheral stars has previously been difficult due to contamination from the Milky Way foreground. We used $u$-band photometry from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) to derive metallicities to efficiently select UFD candidate member stars. This approach was validated on Boo1, where we identified both previously known and new candidate member stars beyond five half-light radii. We then applied a similar procedure to Boo2 and Seg1. Our findings hinted at evidence for tidal features in Boo1 and Seg1, with Boo1 having an elongation consistent with its proper motion and Seg1 showing some distant candidate stars, a few of which are along its elongation and proper motion. We find two Boo2 stars at large distances consistent with being candidate member stars. Using a foreground contamination rate derived from the \emph{Besançon} Galaxy model, we ascribed purity estimates to each candidate member star. We recommend further spectroscopic studies on the newly identified high-purity members. Our technique offers promise for future endeavors to detect candidate member stars at large radii in other systems, leveraging metallicity-sensitive filters with the Legacy Survey of Space and Time and the new, narrow-band Ca HK filter on DECam.
We present the discovery of a candidate ultra-faint Milky Way satellite, Eridanus IV (DELVE J0505$-$0931), detected in photometric data from the DECam Local Volume Exploration survey (DELVE). Eridanus IV is a faint ($M_V = -4.7 \pm 0.2$), extended ($r_{1/2} = 75^{+16}_{-13}$ pc), and elliptical ($ε= 0.54 \pm 0.1$) system at a heliocentric distance of $76.7^{+4.0}_{-6.1}$ kpc, with a stellar population that is well-described by an old, metal-poor isochrone (age of $τ\sim 13.0$ Gyr and metallicity of ${\rm [Fe/H] \lesssim -2.1}$ dex). These properties are consistent with the known population of …
Red clump (RC) stars are one of the best stellar tracers of the structure of the Milky Way (MW) bulge. Here we report a new view of the double RC through luminosity and color distributions of RC stars in nine bulge fields ($l$ = 0.0$^{\circ}$, $\pm$4.5$^{\circ}$; $b$ = -6.0$^{\circ}$, -7.5$^{\circ}$, -9.0$^{\circ}$) from the Blanco DECam Bulge Survey (BDBS), which covers near-ultraviolet to near-infrared bandpasses. The bright and faint RCs show contrasting distributions in ($u-g$)$_{0}$ and ($u-i$)$_{0}$ colors but similar distributions in ($J-K_{s}$)$_{0}$ with a variation depending on the G…
We report the discovery of a new ultra-faint stellar system found near the Magellanic Clouds in the DECam Local Volume Exploration (DELVE) Survey. This new system, DELVE J0155$-$6815 (DELVE 2), is located at a heliocentric distance of $D_{\odot} = 71 \pm 4\text{ kpc}$, which places it at a 3D physical separation of 12 kpc from the center of Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and 28 kpc from the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). DELVE 2 is identified as a resolved overdensity of old ($τ> 13.3\text{ Gyr}$) and metal-poor (${\rm [Fe/H]} = -2.0_{-0.5}^{+0.2}$ dex) stars with a projected half-l…
We report the discovery of two ultra-faint stellar systems found in early data from the DECam Local Volume Exploration survey (DELVE). The first system, Centaurus I (DELVE J1238-4054), is identified as a resolved overdensity of old and metal-poor stars with a heliocentric distance of ${\rm D}_{\odot} = 116.3_{-0.6}^{+0.6}$ kpc, a half-light radius of $r_h = 2.3_{-0.3}^{+0.4}$ arcmin, an age of $τ> 12.85$ Gyr, a metallicity of $Z = 0.0002_{-0.0002}^{+0.0001}$, and an absolute magnitude of $M_V = -5.55_{-0.11}^{+0.11}$ mag. This characterization is consistent with the population of ultra-faint s…
The DECam MAGIC Survey $-$ Mapping the Ancient Galaxy in CaHK: Overview and Summary of Early Science
Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology, Stanford University（斯坦福大学卡弗里粒子天体物理与宇宙学研究所）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）；Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学天文与天体物理系）；NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI)（NSF-Simons天空人工智能研究所）；Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia（弗吉尼亚大学天文学系）；Department of Astronomy, Yale University（耶鲁大学天文学系）；Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas（圣保罗大学天文、地球物理与大气科学学院）；Instituto de Alta Investigación, Universidad de Tarapacá（塔拉帕卡大学高级研究所）
Globular clusters are prone to lose stars while moving around the Milky Way. These stars escape the clusters and are distributed throughout extended envelopes or tidal tails. However, such extra-tidal structures are not observed in all globular clusters, and yet there is no structural or dynamical parameters that can predict their presence or absence. NGC\,6864 is an outer halo globular cluster with reported no observed tidal tails. We used Dark Energy Camera (DECam) photometry reaching $\sim$ 4 mag underneath its main sequence turnoff to confidently detect an extra-tidal envelope, and stellar…
We derive direct measurement gas-phase metallicities of $7.4 < 12 + \log(O/H) < 8.4$ for 14 low-mass Emission Line Galaxies (ELGs) at $0.3 < z < 0.8$ identified in the Faint Infrared Grism Survey (FIGS). We use deep slitless G102 grism spectroscopy of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), dispersing light from all objects in the field at wavelengths between 0.85 and 1.15 microns. We run an automatic search routine on these spectra to robustly identify 71 emission line sources, using archival data from VLT/MUSE to measure additional lines and confirm redshifts. We identify 14 objects with $0.3 < …
We present a study of the ultra-faint Milky Way dwarf satellite galaxy Tucana II using deep photometry from the 1.3m SkyMapper telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia. The SkyMapper filter-set contains a metallicity-sensitive intermediate-band $v$ filter covering the prominent Ca II K feature at 3933.7A. When combined with photometry from the SkyMapper $u, g$, and $i$ filters, we demonstrate that $v$ band photometry can be used to obtain stellar metallicities with a precision of $\sim0.20$dex when [Fe/H] $> -2.5$, and $\sim0.34$dex when [Fe/H] $< -2.5$. Since the $u$ and $v$ filters …
A Chemodynamical Census of the Milky Way's Ultra-Faint Compact Satellites. I. A First Population-Level Look at the Internal Kinematics and Metallicities of 19 Extremely-Low-Mass Halo Stellar Systems
Yale University（耶鲁大学）；University of Toronto（多伦多大学）；Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics（邓普勒天文学与天体物理学研究所）；University of Virginia（弗吉尼亚大学）；Carnegie Institution for Science（卡内基科学机构）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics（卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）
We report the discovery of distant RR Lyrae stars, including the most distant known in the Milky Way, using data taken in the $g-$band with the Dark Energy Camera as part of the High cadence Transient Survey (HiTS; 2014 campaign). We detect a total of 173 RR Lyrae stars over a ~120 deg^2 area, including both known RR Lyrae and new detections. The heliocentric distances d_H of the full sample range from 9 to >200 kpc, with 18 of them beyond 90 kpc. We identify three sub-groups of RR Lyrae as members of known systems: the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy, for which we report 46 new discoveries, a…
We investigate the hypothesized tidal disruption of the Hercules ultra-faint dwarf galaxy (UFD). Previous tidal disruption studies of the Hercules UFD have been hindered by the high degree of foreground contamination in the direction of the dwarf. We bypass this issue by using RR Lyrae stars, which are standard candles with a very low field-volume density at the distance of Hercules. We use wide-field imaging from the Dark Energy Camera on CTIO to identify candidate RR Lyrae stars, supplemented with observations taken in coordination with the Beijing-Arizona Sky Survey on the Bok Telescope. Co…
(abridged) Observing the signature of accretion from the intergalactic medium (IGM) onto galaxies at z~3 requires the detection of faint (L<<L*) galaxies embedded in a filamentary matrix of low-density, metal-poor gas coherent over hundreds of kpc. We study the gaseous environment of three Lyman$α$ emitters (LAEs) at z=2.7-2.8, found to be aligned in projection with a background QSO over ~250 kpc along the slit of a long-slit spectrum. The lack of detection of the LAEs in deep continuum images and the low inferred Ly$α$ luminosities show the LAEs to be intrinsically faint, low-mass galaxies (L…
The Pristine survey XXIX. Data Release 2: Photometric metallicities for 15 millions stars down to $G\sim 20.5$
School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University（南京大学天文与空间科学学院）；Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nanjing University, Ministry of Education（南京大学现代天文与天体物理教育部重点实验室）；Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge（剑桥大学天文学研究所）；Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg, UMR 7550（斯特拉斯堡大学、法国国家科学研究中心、斯特拉斯堡天文台）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学卡普坦天文研究所）；LIRA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS（巴黎天文台 LIRA 实验室、巴黎文理研究大学、索邦大学、巴黎西岱大学、塞吉-蓬图瓦兹大学、法国国家科学研究中心）；Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange（蔚蓝海岸大学、蔚蓝海岸天文台、法国国家科学研究中心、拉格朗日实验室）
The Pristine Dwarf Galaxy Survey -- VII. The metallicity distributions of 12 Milky Way faint satellites
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)（洛桑联邦理工学院）；Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CY Cergy Paris Université, CNRS（巴黎天文台，巴黎文理研究大学，索邦大学，巴黎西岱大学，塞吉-蓬图瓦兹大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；IFCA, Instituto de Física de Cantabria (UC-CSIC)（坎塔布里亚物理研究所（坎塔布里亚大学-西班牙国家研究委员会））；Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS（斯特拉斯堡天文台，斯特拉斯堡大学，法国国家科学研究中心）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University（南京大学天文与空间科学学院）；Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University), Ministry of Education（南京大学现代天文与天体物理教育部重点实验室）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利天体物理学研究所）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉帕鲁纳大学）；Institute of Astronomy, Unive（天文学研究所）
The discovery of very distant stars in the halo of the Milky Way provides valuable tracers on the Milky Way mass and its formation. Beyond 100 kpc from the Galactic center, most of the stars are likely to be in faint dwarf galaxies or tidal debris from recently accreted dwarfs, making the outer reaches of the Galaxy important for understanding the Milky Way's accretion history. However, distant stars in the halo are scarce. In that context, RR Lyrae are ideal probes of the distant halo as they are intrinsically bright and thus can be seen at large distances, follow well-known period-luminosity…
Recent studies of the distribution and kinematics of the Milky Way and Andromeda satellite galaxy systems have confirmed the existence of coplanar, corotating structures of galaxies. In addition to the 'missing satellite problem', these structures pose a major challenge to the standard $Λ$CDM scenario of structure formation. We complement the efforts made by the dwarf galaxy community to extend these studies to other nearby galaxy groups by systematically searching for faint, unresolved dwarf members with a low surface brightness in the Southern Centaurus group of galaxies. The aim is to deter…
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) are the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and close enough to allow for a detailed exploration of their structure and formation history. The Survey of the MAgellanic Stellar History (SMASH) is a community Dark Energy Camera (DECam) survey of the Magellanic Clouds using $\sim$50 nights to sample over $\sim$2400 deg$^2$ centered on the Clouds at $\sim$20% filling factor (but with contiguous coverage in the central regions) and to depths of $\sim$24th mag in $ugriz$. The primary goals of SMASH are to map out the extended stellar periph…
Ultra-Faint Milky Way Satellites Discovered in Carina, Phoenix, and Telescopium with DELVE Data Release 3
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理研究所）；Department of Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学物理系）；NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI)（NSF-西蒙斯天空人工智能研究所）；Department of Astronomy, Yale University（耶鲁大学天文学系）；Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia（弗吉尼亚大学天文学系）；Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学天文与天体物理学系）
We report the discovery of 158 previously undetected dwarf galaxies in the Fornax cluster central regions using a deep coadded $u, g$ and $i$-band image obtained with the DECam wide-field camera mounted on the 4-meter Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory as part of the {\it Next Generation Fornax Survey} (NGFS). The new dwarf galaxies have quasi-exponential light profiles, effective radii $0.1\!<\!r_e\!<\!2.8$ kpc and average effective surface brightness values $22.0\!<\!μ_i\!<\!28.0$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$. We confirm the existence of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in the …
Discovery and Spectroscopic Characterization of a Distant, Compact Milky Way Satellite in Gemini
University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；Yale University（耶鲁大学）；NSF NOIRLab（美国国家科学基金会NOIR实验室）；University of Virginia（弗吉尼亚大学）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）
The Blanco DECam Bulge Survey (BDBS) VIII: Chemo-kinematics in the southern Galactic bulge from 2.3 million red clump stars with Gaia DR3 proper motions
We have discovered a population of 29 outlying H$α$ emitters which appear like unresolved blobs in the DR14 data release of the SDSS IV MaNGA integral field unit survey. They do not have any underlying optical continuum emission in deep imaging from the DECam Legacy Survey or Beijing-Arizona Sky Survey. These blobs either lie away from the disc of the host galaxy in the MaNGA IFU and/or have velocities which are different from the velocity map of the host galaxy. Interestingly, all of them show photoionisation due to star formation. These galaxies have very high specific star formation rates c…
Of the almost 40 star forming galaxies at z>~5 (not counting QSOs) observed in [CII] to date, nearly half are either very faint in [CII], or not detected at all, and fall well below expectations based on locally derived relations between star formation rate (SFR) and [CII] luminosity. Combining cosmological zoom simulations of galaxies with SIGAME (SImulator of GAlaxy Millimeter/submillimeter Emission) we have modeled the multi-phased interstellar medium (ISM) and its emission in [CII], [OI] and [OIII], from 30 main sequence galaxies at z~6 with star formation rates ~3-23Msun/yr, stellar masse…
We present optical and mid-infrared photometry of a statistically complete sample of 29 very faint dwarf galaxies (M_r > -15 mag) selected from the SDSS spectroscopic sample and observed in the mid-infrared with Spitzer IRAC. This sample contains nearby (redshift z<0.005) galaxies three magnitudes fainter than previously studied samples. We compare our sample with other star-forming galaxies that have been observed with both IRAC and SDSS. We examine the relationship of the infrared color, sensitive to PAH abundance, with star-formation rates, gas-phase metallicities and radiation hardness, al…
While low-luminosity galaxies dominate number counts at all redshifts, their contribution to cosmic Reionization is poorly understood due to a lack of knowledge of their physical properties. We isolate a sample of 35 z~4-5 continuum-faint Lyman-alpha emitters from deep VLT/MUSE spectroscopy and directly measure their Halpha emission using stacked Spitzer/IRAC Ch. 1 photometry. Based on Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we determine that the average UV continuum magnitude is fainter than -16 (~0.01 L_star), implying a median Lyman-alpha equivalent width of 249 Angstroms. By combining the Halpha m…
Looking into the faintEst WIth MUSE (LEWIS): on the nature of ultra-diffuse galaxies in the Hydra I cluster. V. Integrated stellar population properties
University of Naples “Federico II”（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利群岛天体物理研究所）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉古纳大学）
Studies of nucleated dwarf galaxies can constrain the scenarios for the formation and evolution of nuclear star clusters (NSC) in low-mass galaxies and give us insights on the origin of ultra compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs). We report the discovery of a NSC in the dwarf galaxy KKs58 and investigate its properties together with those of another NSC in KK197. Both NSCs are hosted by dwarf elliptical galaxies of the Centaurus group. Combining ESO VLT MUSE data with photometry from VLT FORS2, CTIO Blanco DECam, and HST ACS, as well as high-resolution spectroscopy from VLT UVES, we analyse the photom…
We report the discovery of Pegasus IV, an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy found in archival data from the Dark Energy Camera processed by the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey. Pegasus IV is a compact, ultra-faint stellar system ($r_{1/2} = 41^{+8}_{-6}$ pc; $M_V = -4.25 \pm 0.2$ mag) located at a heliocentric distance of $90^{+4}_{-6}$ kpc. Based on spectra of seven non-variable member stars observed with Magellan/IMACS, we confidently resolve Pegasus IV's velocity dispersion, measuring $σ_{v} = 3.3^{+1.7}_{-1.1} \text{ km s}^{-1}$ (after excluding three velocity outliers); this implies a mass-t…
We present the analysis of three faint clusters of the Small Magellanic Cloud RZ82, HW42 and RZ158. We employed the SOAR telescope instrument SAM with adaptive optics, allowing us to reach to V~23-24 mag, unprecedentedly, a depth sufficient to measure ages of up to about 10-12Gyr. All three clusters are resolved to their centres, and the resulting colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) allow us to derive ages of 3.9, 2.6, and 4.8Gyr respectively. These results are significantly younger than previous determinations (7.1, 5.0, and 8.3Gyr, respectively), based on integrated photometry or shallower CMDs…
We study tidal features (TFs) around galaxies in the REsolved Spectroscopy of a Local VolumE (RESOLVE) survey. Our sample consists of 1048 RESOLVE galaxies that overlap with the DECam Legacy Survey, which reaches an r-band 3$σ$ depth of $\sim$27.9 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ for a 100 arcsec$^{2}$ feature. Images were masked, smoothed, and inspected for TFs like streams, shells, or tails/arms. We find TFs in 17$^{\pm 2} \%$ of our galaxies, setting a lower limit on the true frequency. The frequency of TFs in the gas-poor (gas-to-stellar mass ratio $<$ 0.1) subsample is lower than in the gas-rich subsamp…
We report the discovery of an ultra-faint stellar system in the constellation of Pegasus. This concentration of stars was detected by applying our overdensity detection algorithm to the SDSS-DR10 and confirmed with deeper photometry from the Dark Energy Camera at the 4-m Blanco telescope. The best-fitting model isochrone indicates that this stellar system, Kim 1, features an old (12 Gyr) and metal-poor ([Fe/H]$\sim-1.7$) stellar population at a heliocentric distance of $19.8\pm0.9$ kpc. We measure a half-light radius of $6.9\pm0.6$ pc using a Plummer profile. The small physical size and the ex…
We present Magellan/M2FS, VLT/GIRAFFE, and Gemini South/GMOS spectroscopy of the newly discovered Milky Way satellite Reticulum II. Based on the spectra of 25 Ret II member stars selected from Dark Energy Survey imaging, we measure a mean heliocentric velocity of 62.8 +/- 0.5 km/s and a velocity dispersion of 3.3 +/- 0.7 km/s. The mass-to-light ratio of Ret II within its half-light radius is 470 +/- 210 Msun/Lsun, demonstrating that it is a strongly dark matter-dominated system. Despite its spatial proximity to the Magellanic Clouds, the radial velocity of Ret II differs from that of the LMC a…
We test the integrated galactic initial mass function (IGIMF) on the chemical evolution of 16 ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies discussing in detail the results obtained for three of them: Boötes I, Boötes II and Canes Venatici I, taken as prototypes of the smallest and the largest UFDs. These objects have very small stellar masses ($\sim 10^3-10^4 \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$) and quite low metallicities ([Fe/H]$<-1.0$ dex). We consider four observational constraints: the present-day stellar mass, the [$α$/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] relation, the stellar metallicity distribution function and the cumulative star fo…
We present Magellan/IMACS spectroscopy of three recently discovered ultra-faint Milky Way satellites, Grus II, Tucana IV, and Tucana V. We measure systemic velocities of V_hel = -110.0 +/- 0.5 km/s, V_hel = 15.9 +/- 1.8 km/s, and V_hel = -36.2 +/-2.5 km/s for the three objects, respectively. Their large relative velocity differences demonstrate that the satellites are unrelated despite their close physical proximity. We determine a velocity dispersion for Tuc IV of sigma = 4.3^+1.7_-1.0 km/s, but we cannot resolve the velocity dispersions of the other two systems. For Gru II we place an upper …
Recent observations have discovered a number of extremely gas-rich very faint dwarf galaxies possibly embedded in low-mass dark matter halos. We investigate star formation histories of these gas-rich dwarf ("almost dark") galaxies both for isolated and interacting/merging cases. We find that although star formation rates (SFRs) are very low (<10^-5 M_sun/yr) in the simulated dwarfs in isolation for the total halo masses (M_h) of 10^8-10^9 M_sun, they can be dramatically increased to be ~ 10^{-4} M_sun/yr when they interact or merge with other dwarfs. These interacting faint dwarfs with central…
We present redshifts for 2753 low-redshift galaxies between $0.03 \lesssim z_{\rm spec}\lesssim0.5$ with 18 $\leq$ $r$ $\leq$ 22 obtained with Hectospec at the Multi-Mirror Telescope (MMT). The observations targeted the XMM-LSS, ELAIS-N1 and DEEP2-3 fields, each of which covers $\sim$ 1 deg$^2$. These fields are also part of the recently completed CFHT Large Area U-band Deep Survey (CLAUDS) and on-going Hyper Suprime-Cam deep fields surveys. The efficiency of our technique for selecting low-redshift galaxies is confirmed by the redshift distribution of our sources. In addition to redshifts, th…
We use deep Gemini/GMOS-S $g,r$ photometry to study the three ultra-faint dwarf galaxy candidates DES1, Eridanus III (Eri III) and Tucana V (Tuc V). Their total luminosities, $M_V$(DES1) $ = -1.42\pm0.50$ and $M_V$(Eri III) $ = -2.07\pm0.50$, and mean metallicities, [Fe/H] $=-2.38^{+0.21}_{-0.19}$ and [Fe/H] $=-2.40^{+0.19}_{-0.12}$, are consistent with them being ultra-faint dwarf galaxies as they fall just outside the 1-sigma confidence band of the luminosity-metallicity relation for Milky Way satellite galaxies. However, their positions in the size-luminosity relation suggests that they are…
We report new metallicities for stars of Galactic globular cluster M4 using the largest number of stars ever observed at high spectral resolution in any cluster. We analyzed 7250 spectra for 2771 cluster stars gathered with the VLT FLAMES+GIRAFFE spectrograph at VLT. These medium resolution spectra cover by a small wavelength range, and often have very low signal-to-noise ratios. We attacked this dataset by reconsidering the whole method of abundance analysis of large stellar samples from beginning to end. We developed a new algorithm that automatically determines the atmospheric parameters of…
The Metallicity Distribution of the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy Segue 1
University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理研究所）；NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI)（美国国家科学基金会-西蒙斯天空人工智能研究所）；Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science（卡内基科学机构天文台）；The University of Sydney（悉尼大学）；Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology, Stanford University（斯坦福大学卡弗里粒子天体物理学与宇宙学研究所）；Yale University（耶鲁大学）；University of Toronto（多伦多大学）；Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics（邓普勒天文学与天体物理研究所）；Massachusetts Institute of Technology（麻省理工学院）
Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies recently discovered around the Milky Way (MW) contain extremely metal-poor stars, and might represent the building blocks of low-metallicity components of the MW. Among them, the Boötes I dwarf spheroidal galaxy is of particular interest because of its exclusively old stellar population. We determine chemical compositions of six red giant stars in Boötes I, based on the high-resolution spectra obtained with the High Dispersion Spectrograph mounted on the Subaru Telescope. Abundances of 12 elements, including C, Na, alpha, Fe-peak, and neutron capture elements, were d…
We test the hypothesis that the classical and ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal satellites of the our Galaxy have been the building blocks of the Galactic halo by comparing their [O/Fe] and [Ba/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] patterns with the ones observed in Galactic halo stars. The [O/Fe] ratio deviates substantially from the observed abundance ratios in the Galactic halo stars for [Fe/H] > -2 dex, while they overlap for lower metallicities. On the other hand, for the neutron capture elements, the discrepancy is extended at all the metallicities, suggesting that the majority of stars in the halo are likely to ha…
Photometric Metallicities for 367,324 stars of Omega Centauri
Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学前沿天体物理研究所）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理与天文学院）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Notre Dame（圣母大学物理与天文系）；Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics – Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE)（核天体物理联合中心——元素演化中心）
The chemical composition of galaxies has been measured out to z~4. However, nearly all studies beyond z~0.7 are based on strong-line emission from HII regions within star-forming galaxies. Measuring the chemical composition of distant quiescent galaxies is extremely challenging, as the required stellar absorption features are faint and shifted to near-infrared wavelengths. Here, we present ultra-deep rest-frame optical spectra of five massive quiescent galaxies at z~1.4, all of which show numerous stellar absorption lines. We derive the abundance ratios [Mg/Fe] and [Fe/H] for three out of five…
We use deep narrowband Ca H&K ($F395N$) imaging taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to construct the metallicity distribution function (MDF) of Local Group (LG) ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxy Eridanus II (Eri II). When combined with archival $F475W$ and $F814W$ data, we measure metallicities for 60 resolved red giant branch stars as faint as $m_{F475W}\sim24$ mag, a factor of $\sim4$x more stars than current spectroscopic MDF determinations. We find that Eri II has a mean metallicity of [Fe/H]$=$-2.50$^{+0.07}_{-0.07}$ and a dispersion of $σ_{\mbox{[Fe/H]}}=0.42^{+0.06}_{-0.06}$, which…
The NASA concept mission ORCAS (Orbiting Configurable Artificial Star) aims to provide near diffraction-limited angular resolution at visible and near-infrared wavelengths using laser signals from space-based cubesats as Adaptive Optics beacons for ground-based 8-30 meter telescopes, in particular the 10 meter Keck Telescopes. When built as designed, ORCAS+Keck would deliver images of ~0.01-0.02" FWHM at 0.5-1.2 micron wavelength that reach AB<31 mag for point sources in a few hours over a 5x5" FOV that includes IFU capabilities. We summarize the potential of high-resolution faint galaxy scien…
Emission-line galaxies at $z\sim1$ from near-IR HST Slitless Spectroscopy: metallicities, star formation rates and redshift confirmations from VLT/FORS2 spectroscopy
