ORCID Profile
0000-0003-0155-2539
Current Organisation
American Museum of Natural History
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Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 16-10-2017
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 11-2022
Abstract: We present the first comprehensive study of the most massive globular cluster, Omega Centauri, in the far-ultraviolet (FUV), extending from the center to ∼28% of the tidal radius using the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope on board AstroSat. A comparison of the FUV-optical color–magnitude diagrams with available canonical models reveals that horizontal branch (HB) stars bluer than the knee (hHBs) and the white dwarfs (WDs) are fainter in the FUV by ∼0.5 mag than model predictions. They are also fainter than their counterparts in M13, another massive cluster. We simulated HB with at least five subpopulations, including three He-rich populations with a substantial He enrichment of Y up to 0.43 dex, to reproduce the observed FUV distribution. We find the He-rich younger subpopulations to be radially more segregated than the He-normal older ones, suggesting an in situ enrichment from older generations. The ω Cen hHBs span the same T eff range as their M13 counterparts, but some have smaller radii and lower luminosities. This may suggest that a fraction of ω Cen hHBs are less massive than those of M13, similar to the result derived from earlier spectroscopic studies of outer extreme HB stars. The WDs in ω Cen and M13 have similar luminosity–radius– T eff parameters, and 0.44–0.46 M ⊙ He-core WD model tracks evolving from progenitors with Y = 0.4 dex are found to fit the majority of these. This study provides constraints on the formation models of ω Cen based on the estimated range in age, [Fe/H], and Y (in particular) for the HB stars.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 02-05-2022
Abstract: We present the first results of eight globular clusters (GCs) from the AstroSat/UVIT Legacy Survey programme GlobULeS based on the observations carried out in two far-ultraviolet (FUV) filters (F148W and F169M). The FUV–optical and FUV–FUV colour–magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of GCs with the proper motion membership were constructed by combining the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) data with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) UV Globular Cluster Survey data for inner regions and Gaia Early Data Release for regions outside the HST’s field. We detect sources as faint as F148W ∼ 23.5 mag, which are classified based on their locations in CMDs by overlaying stellar evolutionary models. The CMDs of eight GCs are combined with the previous UVIT studies of three GCs to create stacked FUV–optical CMDs to highlight the features eculiarities found in the different evolutionary sequences. The FUV (F148W) detected stellar populations of 11 GCs comprise 2816 horizontal branch (HB) stars [190 extreme HB (EHB) candidates], 46 post-HB (pHB), 221 blue straggler stars (BSSs), and 107 white dwarf (WD) candidates. We note that the blue HB colour extension obtained from F148W − G colour and the number of FUV detected EHB candidates are strongly correlated with the maximum internal helium (He) variation within each GC, suggesting that the FUV–optical plane is the most sensitive to He abundance variations in the HB. We discuss the potential science cases that will be addressed using these catalogues including HB morphologies, BSSs, pHB, and WD stars.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 05-10-2018
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 28-09-2023
Location: United States of America
No related grants have been discovered for Michael Shara.