Mario Mateo

The ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury

The ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury (ANGST) is a systematic survey to establish a legacy of uniform multi-color photometry of resolved stars for a volume-limited sample of nearby galaxies (D 14 million stars. In this paper we present the details of the sample selection, imaging, data reduction, and the resulting photometric catalogs, along with an analysis of the photometric uncertainties (systematic and random), for both ACS and WFPC2 imaging. We also present uniformly derived relative distances measured from the apparent magnitude of the TRGB.

BINARIES IN GLOBULAR-CLUSTERS

Binary stars in a globular cluster (hereafter, GC) may be primordial (i.e. formed along with the cluster), or the result of cluster dynamics. “Dynamical” binaries can result from conservative three-body encounters (e.g. Spitzer, 1987) if a third star can carry away enough kinetic energy to leave two others bound, or from dissipative two-body encounters, if two stars happen to pass within a few stellar radii of one other (Fabian, Pringle, & Rees, 1975). Such non-primordial systems are likely to be found primarily in evolved GC cores, both because conditions are more favorable for making them there, and because of mass segregation. Knowledge of the formation process allows reasonable estimates to be made of their mass and energy distributions. The initial spatial, mass, and energy distributions of primordial binaries, on the other hand, are largely unknown.

The radial velocity dispersion profile of the Galactic halo: constraining the density profile of the dark halo of the Milky Way

We have compiled a new sample of 240 halo objects with accurate distance and radial velocity measurements, including globular clusters, satellite galaxies, field blue horizontal branch (FHB) stars and red giant stars from the Spaghetti survey. The new data lead to a significant increase in the number of known objects for Galactocentric radii beyond 50 kpc, which allows a reliable determination of the radial velocity dispersion profile out to very large distances. The radial velocity dispersion shows an almost constant value of 120 km s −1 out to 30 kpc and then continuously declines down to 50 km s −1 at about 120 kpc. This fall-off puts important constraints on the density profile and total mass of the dark matter halo of the Milky Way. Fo ra constant velocity anisotropy, the isothermal profile is ruled out, while both a dark halo ∞

Modeling the Galactic Bar Using Red Clump Giants

The color-magnitude diagrams of ~7 × 105 stars obtained for 12 fields across the Galactic bulge with the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment project reveal a well-defined population of bulge red clump giants. We find that the distributions of the apparent magnitudes of the red clump stars are systematically fainter when observing toward lower Galactic l fields. The most plausible explanation for this distinct trend is that the Galactic bulge is a bar whose nearest end lies at positive Galactic longitude. We model this Galactic bar by fitting the observed luminosity functions in the red clump region of the color-magnitude diagram for all fields. We find that, almost regardless of the analytical function used to describe the three-dimensional distribution of stars in the Galactic bar, the resulting models have the major axis inclined to the line of sight from 20° to 30°, with axis ratios corresponding to x0:y0:z0 = 3.5:1.5:1. This puts a strong constraint on the possible range of the Galactic bar models.

The Quadruple Gravitational Lens PG 1115+080: Time Delays and Models

Optical photometry is presented for the quadruple gravitational lens PG 1115+080. A preliminary reduction of data taken from 1995 November to 1996 June gives component C leading component B by 23.7 ? 3.4 days and components A1 and A2 by 9.4 days. A range of models has been fitted to the image positions, none of which gives an adequate fit. The best-fitting and most physically plausible of these, taking the lensing galaxy and the associated group of galaxies to be singular isothermal spheres, gives a Hubble constant of 42 km s-1 Mpc-1 for ? = 1, with an observational uncertainty of 14%, as computed from the B - C time delay measurement. Taking the lensing galaxy to have an approximately E5 isothermal mass distribution yields H0 = 64 km s-1 Mpc-1, while taking the galaxy to be a point mass gives H0 = 84 km s-1 Mpc-1. The former gives a particularly bad fit to the position of the lensing galaxy, while the latter is inconsistent with measurements of nearby galaxy rotation curves. Constraints on these and other possible models are expected to improve with planned Hubble Space Telescope observations.

Population Gradients in Local Group Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies

We present a systematic and homogeneous analysis of population gradients for the Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) Carina, Sculptor, Sextans, Tucana, and Andromeda I–III, V, and VI. For all of the Milky Way companions studied here, we find significant population gradients. The same is true for the remote dSph Tucana located at the outskirts of the Local Group. Among the M31 dSph companions, only Andromeda I and VI show obvious gradients. In all cases where a horizontal-branch (HB) morphology gradient is visible, the red HB stars are more centrally concentrated. The occurrence of a HB morphological gradient shows a correlation with a morphology gradient in the red giant branch. It seems likely that metallicity is the driver of the gradients in Sextans, Sculptor, Tucana, and Andromeda VI, while age is an important factor in Carina. We find no evidence that the vicinity of a nearby massive spiral galaxy influences the formation of the population gradients.

COLOR-MAGNITUDE DIAGRAM DISTRIBUTION OF THE BULGE RED CLUMP STARS : EVIDENCE FOR THE GALACTIC BAR

The color-magnitude diagrams of

The discovery of Segue 2: a prototype of the population of satellites of satellites

\sim 5\times 10^5

GALACTIC GLOBULAR CLUSTER METALLICITY SCALE FROM THE CA II TRIPLET I. CATALOG

stars obtained for 13 fields towards the Galactic bulge with the OGLE project reveal a well-defined population of bulge red clump stars. We find that the distributions of the extinction-adjusted apparent magnitudes of the red clump stars in fields lying at

BIG FISH, LITTLE FISH: TWO NEW ULTRA-FAINT SATELLITES OF THE MILKY WAY

l=\pm5\deg