Horacio Alberto Dottori

A search for old star clusters in the large magellanic cloud

We report the first results of a color-magnitude diagram survey of 25 candidate old LMC clusters. For almost all of the sample, it was possible to reach the turnoff region, and in many clusters we have several magnitudes of the main sequence. Age estimates based on the magnitude difference

Steps toward determination of the size and structure of the broad-line region in active galactic nuclei. IX. Ultraviolet observations of Fairall 9

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Ages and Metallicities of Star Clusters and Surrounding Fields in the Outer Disk of the Large Magellanic Cloud

between the giant branch clump and the turnoff revealed that no new old clusters were found. The candidates turned out to be of intermediate age (1-3 Gyr) We show that the apparently old ages as inferred from integrated UBV colors can be explained by a combination of stochastic effects produced by bright stars and by photometric errors for faint clusters lying in crowded fields. The relatively metal poor candidates from the CaII triplet spectroscopy also turned out to be of intermediate age. This, combined with the fact that they lie far out in the disk, yields interesting constraints regarding the formation and evolution of the LMC disk. We also study the age distribution of intermediate age and old clusters This homogeneous set of accurate relative ages allows us to make an improved study of the history of cluster formation/destruction for ages

Steps toward determination of the size and structure of the broad-line region in active galactic nuclei. 6: Variability of NGC 3783 from ground-based data

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HST/WFPC2 and VLT/ISAAC Observations of Proplyds in the Giant H II Region NGC 3603

Gyr. We confirm previous indications that there was apparently no cluster formation in the LMC during the period from 3-8 Gyr ago, and that there was a pronounced epoch of cluster formation beginning 3 Gyrs ago that peaked at about 1.5 Gyrs ago. Our results suggest that there are few, if any, genuine old clusters in the LMC left to be found.

Dissolving star cluster candidates

An 8 month monitoring campaign on the Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9 has been conducted with the International Ultraviolet Explorer in an attempt to obtain reliable estimates of continuum-continuum and continuum-emission-line delays for a high-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN). While the results of this campaign are more ambiguous than those of previous monitoring campaigns on lower luminosity sources, we find general agreement with the earlier results: (1) there is no measurable lag between ultraviolet continuum bands, and (2) the measured emission-line time lags are very short. It is especially notable that the Ly? + N V emission-line lag is about 1 order of magnitude smaller than determined from a previous campaign by Clavel, Wamsteker, & Glass (1989) when Fairall 9 was in a more luminous state. In other well-monitored sources, specifically NGC 5548 and NGC 3783, the highest ionization lines are found to respond to continuum variations more rapidly than the lower ionization lines, which suggests a radially ionization-stratified broad-line region. In this case, the results are less certain, since none of the emission-line lags are very well determined. The best-determined emission line lag is Ly? + N V, for which we find that the centroid of the continuum-emission-line cross-correlation function is ?cent ? 14-20 days. We measure a lag ?cent 4 days for He II ?1640; this result is consistent with the ionization-stratification pattern seen in lower luminosity sources, but the relatively large uncertainties in the emission-line lags measured here cannot rule out similar lags for Ly? + N V and He II ?1640 at a high level of significance. We are unable to determine a reliable lag for C IV ?1550, but we note that the profiles of the variable parts of Ly? and C IV ?1550 are not the same, which does not support the hypothesis that the strongest variations in these two lines arise in the same region.

A New Giant Branch Clump Structure in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We present Washington system CT1 color-magnitude diagrams of 13 star clusters and their surrounding fields that lie in the outer parts of the LMC disk (r > 4°), as well as a comparison inner cluster. The total area covered is large ( deg2), allowing us to study the clusters and their fields individually and in the context of the entire Galaxy. Ages are determined by means of the magnitude difference δT1 between the giant branch clump and the turnoff, while metallicities are derived from the location of the giant and subgiant branches as compared with fiducial star clusters. This yields a unique data set in which ages and metallicities for both a significant sample of clusters and their fields are determined homogeneously. We find that in most cases the stellar population of each star cluster is quite similar to that of the field where it is embedded, sharing its mean age and metallicity. The old population (t ≥ 10 Gyr) is detected in most fields as a small concentration of stars on the horizontal branch blueward and faintward of the prominent clump. Three particular fields present remarkable properties: (1) The thus-far unique cluster ESO 121-SC03 at ≈9 Gyr has a surrounding field that shares the same properties (which, in turn, is also unique, in that such a dominant old-field component is not present elsewhere—at least not significantly in the fields as yet studied). (2) The field surrounding the far eastern intermediate-age cluster OHSC 37 is noteworthy in that we do not detect any evidence of LMC stars: it is essentially a Galactic foreground field. We can thus detect the LMC field out to greater than 11° (the deprojected distance of ESO 121-SC03), or ~11 kpc, but not to 13° (~13 kpc), despite the presence of clusters at this distance. (3) In the northern part of the LMC disk, the fields of SL 388 and SL 509 present color-magnitude diagrams with a secondary clump ≈0.45 mag fainter than the dominant intermediate-age clump, suggesting a stellar population component located behind the LMC disk at a distance comparable to that of the SMC. Possibly we are witnessing a depth effect in the LMC, and the size of the corresponding structure is comparable to the size of a dwarf galaxy. The unusual spatial location of the cluster OHSC 37 and the anomalous properties of the SL 388 and SL 509 fields might be explained as debris from previous LMC interactions with the Galaxy and/or the SMC. The mean metallicity derived for the intermediate-age outer disk clusters is [Fe/H] = -0.66, and for their surrounding fields [Fe/H] = -0.56. These values are significantly lower than those found by Olszewski et al. for a sample of clusters of similar age but are in good agreement with several recent studies. A few clusters stand out in the age-metallicity relation, in that they are intermediate-age clusters at relatively low metallicity ([Fe/H] ≈ -1).

A Morphological Method to Determine Corotation Radii in Spiral Galaxies

The Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 3783 was intensely monitored in several bands between 1991 December and 1992 August. This paper presents the results from the ground-based observations in the optical and near-IR bands, which complement the data set formed by the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) spectra, discussed elsewhere. Spectroscopic and photometric data from several observatories were combined in order to obtain well-sampled light curves of the continuum and of H(beta). During the campaign the source underwent significant variability. The light curves of the optical continuum and of H(beta) display strong similarities to those obtained with the IUE. The near-IR flux did not vary significantly except for a slight increase at the end of the campaign. The cross-correlation analysis shows that the variations of the optical continuum have a lag of 1 day or less with respect to those of the UV continuum, with an uncertainty of is less than or equal to 4 days. The integrated flux of H(beta) varies with a delay of about 8 days. These results confirm that (1) the continuum variations occur simultaneously or with a very small lag across the entire UV-optical range, as in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548; and (2) the emission lines of NGC 3783 respond to ionizing continuum variations with less delay than those of NGC 5548. As observed in NGC 5548, the lag of H(beta) with respect to the continuum is greater than those of the high-ionization lines.

Infrared mergers and infrared quasi-stellar objects with galactic winds – II. NGC 5514: two extranuclear starbursts with LINER properties and a supergiant bubble in the rupture phase

We report the discovery of three proplyd-like structures in the giant H II region NGC 3603. The emission nebulae are clearly resolved in narrowband and broadband HST/WFPC2 observations in the optical and broadband VLT/ISAAC observations in the near-infrared. All three nebulae are tadpole shaped, with the bright ionization front at the head facing the central cluster and a fainter ionization front around the tail pointing away from the cluster. Typical sizes are 6000 AU × 20,000 AU The nebulae share the overall morphology of the proplyds (PROto PLanetarY DiskS) in Orion, but are 20 to 30 times larger in size. Additional faint filaments located between the nebulae and the central ionizing cluster can be interpreted as bow shocks resulting from the interaction of the fast winds from the high-mass stars in the cluster with the evaporation flow from the proplyds. Low-resolution spectra of the brightest nebula, which is at a projected separation of 1.3 pc from the cluster, reveal that it has the spectral excitation characteristics of an ultra compact H II region with electron densities well in excess of 104 cm-3. The near-infrared data reveal a point source superposed on the ionization front. The striking similarity of the tadpole-shaped emission nebulae in NGC 3603 to the proplyds in Orion suggests that the physical structure of both types of objects might be the same. We present two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical simulations of an externally illuminated star-disk-envelope system, which was still in its main accretion phase when first exposed to ionizing radiation from the central cluster. The simulations reproduce the overall morphology of the proplyds in NGC 3603 very well, but also indicate that mass-loss rates of up to 10-5 M☉ yr-1 are required in order to explain the size of the proplyds. We report the discovery of three proplyd-like structures in the giant H II region NGC 3603. The emission nebulae are clearly resolved in narrowband and broadband HST/WFPC2 observations in the optical and broadband VLT/ISAAC observations in the near-infrared. All three nebulae are tadpole shaped, with the bright ionization front at the head facing the central cluster and a fainter ionization front around the tail pointing away from the cluster. Typical sizes are 6000 AU × 20,000 AU. The nebulae share the overall morphology of the proplyds (PROto PLanetarY DiskS) in Orion, but are 20 to 30 times larger in size. Additional faint filaments located between the nebulae and the central ionizing cluster can be interpreted as bow shocks resulting from the interaction of the fast winds from the high-mass stars in the cluster with the evaporation flow from the proplyds. Low-resolution spectra of the brightest nebula, which is at a projected separation of 1.3 pc from the cluster, reveal that it has the spectral excitation characteristics of an ultra compact H II region with electron densities well in excess of 104 cm−3. The near-infrared data reveal a point source superposed on the ionization front. The striking similarity of the tadpole-shaped emission nebulae in NGC 3603 to the proplyds in Orion suggests that the physical structure of both types of objects might be the same. We present two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical simulations of an externally illuminated star-disk-envelope system, which was still in its main accretion phase when first exposed to ionizing radiation from the central cluster. The simulations reproduce the overall morphology of the proplyds in NGC 3603 very well, but also indicate that mass-loss rates of up to 10−5 M☉ yr−1 are required in order to explain the size of the proplyds. Due to these high mass-loss rates, the proplyds in NGC 3603 should only survive ≈105 yr. Despite this short survival time, we detect three proplyds. This indicates that circumstellar disks must be common around young stars in NGC 3603 and that these particular proplyds have only recently been exposed to their present harsh UV environment.

Determination of ochratoxin A in wine by high-performance thin-layer chromatography using charged coupled device

We present a list of 34 neglected entries from star cluster catalogues located at relatively high galactic latitudes (