Alistair R. Walker

Southern spectrophotometric standards. I

We have obtained new observations of both secondary and tertiary spectrophotometric standards with the RC spectrographs and CCD cameras on the 1.5-m and 4-m telescopes at CTIO in the wavelength range of 3300-7550 angstroms, as well as UBV(RI)KC photometry for these stars. We have modified the monochromatic fluxes of the secondary spectrophotometric standards published by Taylor (1984) according to the new calibration of Vega provided by Hayes (1985). We have also uned the zero-point of the energy distribution of these stars by matching their V synthetic magnitudes to the observed magnitudes. We use these adjusted spectrophotometric standards in order to calculate ne fluxes for the tertiary standards of Stone and Baldwin (1983), as well as for three stars of the northern hemisphere from Stone (1977). We find that the synthetic magnitudes calculated from our spectra through the B and V bands agree extremely well with our photometry, to better than 1% on average. For the monochromatic fluxes, we find an internal precision better than 0.01 mag at all wavelengths, and a fair agreement with previous measurements of the tertiary standards. We present also a fine grid of averaged monochromatic fluxes (at continuous steps of 16 angstroms) for the ten secondary standards selected for our program, to be used in the flux calibration of high dispersion spectra.

EIGHT NEW MILKY WAY COMPANIONS DISCOVERED IN FIRST-YEAR DARK ENERGY SURVEY DATA

We report the discovery of eight new Milky Way companions in ~1,800 deg^2 of optical imaging data collected during the first year of the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Each system is identified as a statistically significant over-density of individual stars consistent with the expected isochrone and luminosity function of an old and metal-poor stellar population. The objects span a wide range of absolute magnitudes (M_V from -2.2 mag to -7.4 mag), physical sizes (10 pc to 170 pc), and heliocentric distances (30 kpc to 330 kpc). Based on the low surface brightnesses, large physical sizes, and/or large Galactocentric distances of these objects, several are likely to be new ultra-faint satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and/or Magellanic Clouds. We introduce a likelihood-based algorithm to search for and characterize stellar over-densities, as well as identify stars with high satellite membership probabilities. We also present completeness estimates for detecting ultra-faint galaxies of varying luminosities, sizes, and heliocentric distances in the first-year DES data.

Multiple stellar populations in the globular cluster omega Centauri as tracers of a merger event

The discovery of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, which is being tidally disrupted by and merging with the Milky Way, supports the view that the halo of the Galaxy has been built up at least partially by the accretion of similar dwarf systems. The Sagittarius dwarf contains several distinct populations of stars, and includes M54 as its nucleus, which is the second most massive globular cluster associated with the Milky Way. The most massive globular cluster is ω Centauri, and here we report that ω Centauri also has several distinct stellar populations, as traced by red-giant-branch stars. The most metal-rich red-giant-branch stars are about 2 Gyr younger than the dominant metal-poor component, indicating that ω Centauri was enriched over this timescale. The presence of more than one epoch of star formation in a globular cluster is quite surprising, and suggests that ω Centauri was once part of a more massive system that merged with the Milky Way, as the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy is in the process of doing now. Mergers probably were much more frequent in the early history of the Galaxy and ω Centauri appears to be a relict of this era.

SN 1991bg - A type Ia supernova with a difference

We present 13 spectra and 31 photometric observations covering the first 150 days of SN 1991bg in NGC 4374 (M 84). Although SN 1991bg was a type Ia supernova displaying the characteristic Si II absorption at 6150 A near maximum and the Fe emission lines at late phases, it varied from the well-defined norm for SNe Ia in several important respects. The peculiarities include faster declines in the B and V light curves after maximum, a distinct color evolution, a very red B−V color near maximum, relatively faint peak luminosity, a distinct spectral evolution, and a short peak phase

Eight ultra-faint galaxy candidates discovered in year two of the Dark Energy Survey

We report the discovery of eight new ultra-faint dwarf galaxy candidates in the second year of optical imaging data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). Six of these candidates are detected at high confidence, while two lower-confidence candidates are identified in regions of non-uniform survey coverage. The new stellar systems are found by three independent automated search techniques and are identified as overdensities of stars, consistent with the isochrone and luminosity function of an old and metal-poor simple stellar population. The new systems are faint (MV > −4.7

The absolute magnitudes of LMC RR Lyrae variables and the ages of Galactic globular clusters

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Photometric redshift analysis in the Dark Energy Survey science verification data

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The luminosity, mass, and age distributions of compact star clusters in M83 based on Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 observations

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The Hubble Deep Field South: Formulation of the Observing Campaign

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Old Stellar Populations of the Small Magellanic Cloud

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