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Calibrating the thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch phase through resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies
Get PDFMost of the physical processes driving the Thermally-Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch (TP-AGB) evolution are not yet fully understood and they need to be modelled with parametrised descriptions. The uncertainties of the models affect the interpretation of the spectrophotometric properties of galaxies up to high-redshift. In the framework of the ERC - STARKEY project, the aim of this Thesis is to constrain the uncertain parameters, i.e. third dredge-up and mass-loss, that still affect the TP-AGB models. To this purpose, I perform detailed simulations of AGB star populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) based on robust measurements of the space-resolved star formation history as derived from the deep near-infrared photometry of the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds. I compare the resulting synthetic catalogues with high-quality observations of resolved stellar populations in the infrared passbands of 2MASS and Spitzer. A large grid of TP-AGB evolutionary tracks is computed with several combinations of third dredge-up and mass-loss prescriptions. By requiring the models to reproduce the star counts and the luminosity functions of the observed Oxygen-, Carbon-rich and extreme-AGB stars, I put quantitative constraints on the efficiencies of the third dredge-up and mass-loss. The observed luminosity functions in all the available infrared photometric filters are successfully reproduced by two set of models, one with a relatively high mass-loss efficiency for Oxygen-rich stars and the second with a lower mass-loss efficiency and a lower efficiency of the third dredge-up for the more massive TP-AGB stars, i.e. initial masses larger than three solar masses. On the basis of the best-fitting model I present a complete characterisation of the AGB population in terms of stellar parameters, including the predicted mass-loss rates, initial masses, and Carbon-to-Oxygen ratio. I use the TP-AGB models calibrated in the SMC to model the population of Long Period Variables (LPVs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud as observed by Gaia. The remarkable agreement between models and observations allows us to guide the interpretation of a new observational diagram that is able to photometrically distinguish the evolutionary stages, the initial masses and the chemical type of these stars. In the context of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) science collaboration, I produce catalogues containing the synthetic photometry of the Magellanic Clouds in the Gaia and LSST filters. These catalogues, together with the all-sky simulations of the Milky Way will be made available to the community through the NOAO Data Lab to help defining the observing strategy of the LSST mini-surveys. In addition, I simulate samples of AGB stars in Local Group dwarf galaxies and find a general agreement with the data. However, to properly consider these objects in the TP-AGB models calibration, the simulations should be improved to take into account the crowding effects and the different areas used for the star formation histories derivation and the AGB stars identification. Finally, the products of this work, namely calibrated stellar isochrones and pulsation periods of LPVs, will be publicly available and ready to use for the interpretation of the data coming from present and future observing facilities. The calibrated TP-AGB models may be included in population synthesis models used to probe the integrated light of galaxies in the extragalactic Universe
Characterisation of long-period variables in the Magellanic Clouds
No full textVariability due to stellar pulsation on the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) has a great potential for applications such as distance measurements, the study the evolution of stars and galaxies, and the estimate of global stellar parameters, as well as to constrain stellar evolutionary models. Given the importance of long-period variables (LPVs) in this sense, and given the lack of recent, updated sets of pulsation models, we computed an extended grid of pulsation models widely covering the space of AGB stellar parameters, including up-to-date opacities and accounting for the chemical evolution associated with third dredge-up events. We present the relevant properties of this grid and discuss the main results it allowed to obtain in terms of the interpretation of the observed properties of LPVs in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)...
Long-Period Variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud
No full textWe present the first results from a new set of linear, radial, non-adiabatic pulsation models of long-period variables (LPVs), widely covering the space of stellar parameters corresponding to evolution along the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB). This coverage includes several values of metallicity and carbon-enhanced compositions consistent with the occurrence of repeated third dredge-up events. Updated atomic and molecular opacity data were included consistently with chemical composition in order to produce realistic pulsation properties of both O-rich and C-rich variables. We combined the pulsation models with a stellar population synthesis tool in order to study the population of LPVs in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We found the models to be reasonably good at reproducing the observed period-luminosity (PL) sequences, as well as the distribution of observed amplitudes. We provide a new interpretation of the PL sequences of LPVs that can bring into alignment previously discordant interpretations...
Modelling long-period variables - I. A new grid of O-rich and C-rich pulsation models
No full textWe present a new grid of non-adiabatic, linear pulsation models of long-period variables (LPVs), including periods and growth rates for radial modes from the fundamental to the fourth overtone. The models span a wide range in mass, luminosity, metallicity, C/O ratio, and helium abundance, effectively covering the whole thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) evolution, and representing a significant update with respect to previous works. The main improvement is the inclusion of detailed atomic and molecular opacities, consistent with the models chemical mixture, that makes the present set of models the first to systematically account for variability in C-stars. We examine periods and growth rates in the models, and find that, while the fundamental mode is affected by the structure of the envelope, overtones are less sensitive to the interior and largely determined by the global properties. In the models, the frequency of the overtone with the largest degree of excitation is found to scale with the acoustic cut-off frequency at the stellar surface, a behaviour similar to that observed for the frequency of maximum oscillation power for solar-like oscillations in less evolved red giants. This allows us to provide a simple analytic prescription to predict the most-likely dominant mode as a function of stellar parameters. Best-fitting relations for periods are also provided. By applying results of pulsation models to evolutionary tracks, we present a general picture of the evolution of long-period variability during the TP-AGB, that we find consistent with observations. Models are made public through a dedicated web interface
Non-radial modes in AGB stars
Get PDFThe success of asteroseismology in characterising G-K giants has motivated the extension of the same techniques to stars after the central He-burning and M-giants. The latter have been usually studied only as radial pulsators; the presence, however, of fine-structure in the period-luminosity diagram of red variables in the Magellanic Clouds could result from the presence of non-radial oscillations, offering the potential of observational indexes based on non-radial oscillations also for luminous red giants. We present here the results of a first approach aiming to identify the origin of the sub-ridges in the sequence A of the LMC red variables
Modelling TP-AGB Stars in M31 with PHAT Data
No full textThe thermally pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phase is still the most uncertain phase among the main evolutionary phases of single stars, due to complicated processes involved, such as third dredge-up (3DU) and mass loss. These processes significantly affect the lifetime, luminosity, colors and chemical yields of TP-AGB stars. With HST high resolution imaging data from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) survey, TP-AGB stars are resolved in M31. This enables us to study the color-magnitude diagram and luminosity functions of TP-AGBs of different metallicity and mass within different environments (from the bulge to the disk) of M31. Therefore, PHAT data provides strong constraints for TP-AGB models. In this preliminary work, we calibrate TP-AGB evolutionary tracks with PHAT data using stellar population synthesis approach. By adjusting the parameters regulating the third dredge-up occurrence and efficiency as well as the prescription of mass-loss in the model, we are able to satisfactorily reproduce the observed luminosity function (F160W) and color-magnitude diagram (F110W-F160W vs. F160W)...
AGB stars in Gaia DR2
No full textGaia Data Release 2 (DR2; April 25, 2018) provides astrometric and photometric data for more than a billion stars - among them many AGB stars. As part of DR2 the light curves of several hundreds of thousand variable stars, including many long-period variable (LPV) candidates, are made available. The publication of the light curves and LPV-specific attributes in addition to the standard DR2 products offers a unique opportunity to study AGB stars. In this contribution, we present the first results for AGB stars based on the analysis of the Gaia data performed after their release. As an immediate result of the Gaia DR2 LPV database we introduce a new photometric index capable of efficiently distinguishing AGB stars of different masses and chemical properties...
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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