R. Contreras Ramos

Chemical and Kinematical Properties of Blue Straggler Stars and Horizontal Branch Stars in NGC 6397

We used three sets of high-resolution spectra acquired with the multifiber facility FLAMES at the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory to investigate the chemical and kinematical properties of a sample of 42 horizontal branch (HB) stars, 18 Blue Straggler Stars (BSSs) and 86 main sequence turn-off and sub-giant branch stars in the nearby globular cluster NGC 6397. We measured rotational velocities and Fe, O and Mg abundances. All the unevolved stars in our sample turn out to have low rotational velocites (v sin i 8200 K and T> 10500 K, respectively) also show significant deviations in their iron abundance with respect to the cluster metallicity (as traced by the unevolved stars, [Fe/H]=-2.12). While similar chemical patterns have been already observed in other hot HB stars, this is the first evidence ever collected for BSSs. We interprete these abundance anomalies as due to the metal radiative levitation, occurring in stars with shallow or no convective envelopes.

The Unimodal Distribution of Blue Straggler Stars in M75 (NGC 6864)

We have used a combination of multiband high-resolution and wide-field ground-based observations to image the Galactic globular cluster M75 (NGC 6864). The extensive photometric sample covers the entire cluster extension, from the very central regions out to the tidal radius, allowing us to determine the center of gravity and to construct the most extended star density profile ever published for this cluster. We also present the first detailed star counts in the very inner regions. The star density profile is well reproduced by a standard King model with core radius rc ~ 54 and intermediate-high concentration c ~ 1.75. The present paper presents a detailed study of the blue straggler star (BSS) population and its radial distribution. A total of 62 bright BSSs (with m F255W 21, corresponding to m F555W 20) have been identified, and they have been found to be highly segregated in the cluster core. No significant upturn in the BSS frequency has been observed in the outskirts of M75, in contrast to several other clusters studied with the same technique. This observational fact is quite similar to what has been found in M79 (NGC 1904) by Lanzoni et al. Indeed, the BSS radial distributions in the two clusters are qualitatively very similar, even if in M75 the relative BSS frequency seems to decrease significantly faster than in M79: it decreases by a factor of five (from 3.4 to 0.7) within 1rc . Such evidence indicates that the vast majority of the cluster heavy stars (binaries) have already sunk to the core.

The VVV Templates Project Towards an automated classification of VVV light-curves - I. Building a database of stellar variability in the near-infrared

Context. The Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey is a variability survey of the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the disk carried out from 2010 on ESO Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The VVV survey will eventually deliver a deep near-IR atlas with photometry and positions in five passbands (ZY JHKS) and a catalogue of 1−10 million variable point sources – mostly unknown – that require classifications. Aims. The main goal of the VVV Templates Project, which we introduce in this work, is to develop and test the machine-learning algorithms for the automated classification of the VVV light-curves. As VVV is the first massive, multi-epoch survey of stellar variability in the near-IR, the template light-curves that are required for training the classification algorithms are not available. In the first paper of the series we describe the construction of this comprehensive database of infrared stellar variability. Methods. First, we performed a systematic search in the literature and public data archives; second, we coordinated a worldwide observational campaign; and third, we exploited the VVV variability database itself on (optically) well-known stars to gather high-quality infrared light-curves of several hundreds of variable stars. Results. We have now collected a significant (and still increasing) number of infrared template light-curves. This database will be used as a training-set for the machine-learning algorithms that will automatically classify the light-curves produced by VVV. The results of such an automated classification will be covered in forthcoming papers of the series.Context. The Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey is a variability survey of the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the disk carried out from 2010 on ESO Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). The VVV survey will eventually deliver a deep near-IR atlas with photometry and positions in five passbands (ZYJHKS) and a catalogue of 1−10 million variable point sources – mostly unknown – that require classifications. Aims. The main goal of the VVV Templates Project, which we introduce in this work, is to develop and test the machine-learning algorithms for the automated classification of the VVV light-curves. As VVV is the first massive, multi-epoch survey of stellar variability in the near-IR, the template light-curves that are required for training the classification algorithms are not available. In the first paper of the series we describe the construction of this comprehensive database of infrared stellar variability. Methods. First, we performed a systematic search in the literature and public data archives; second, we coordinated a worldwide observational campaign; and third, we exploited the VVV variability database itself on (optically) well-known stars to gather high-quality infrared light-curves of several hundreds of variable stars. Results. We have now collected a significant (and still increasing) number of infrared template light-curves. This database will be used as a training-set for the machine-learning algorithms that will automatically classify the light-curves produced by VVV. The results of such an automated classification will be covered in forthcoming papers of the series.

The ancient stellar population of M 32: RR Lyrae variable stars confirmed

Using archival multi-epoch ACS/WFC images in the F606W and F814W filters of a resolved stellar field in Local Group dwarf elliptical galaxy M 32 we have made an accurate colour-magnitude diagram and a careful search for RR Lyr variable stars. We identified 416 bona fide RR Lyr stars over our field of view, and their spatial distribution shows a rising number density towards the centre of M 32. These new observations clearly confirm the tentative result of Fiorentino et al. (2010b, ApJ, 708, 817), on a much smaller field of view, associating an ancient population of RR Lyr variables to M 32. We associate at least 83 RR Lyr stars in our field to M 32. In addition the detection of 4 anomalous Cepheids with masses in the range 1.2-1.9 M⊙ indicates the presence of relatively young, 1-4 Gyr old, stars in this field. They are most likely associated to the presence of the blue plume in the colour-magnitude diagram. However these young stars are unlikely to be associated with M 32 because the radial distribution of the blue plume does not follow the M 32 density profile, and thus they are more likely to belong to the underlying M 31 stellar population. Finally the detection of 3 Population II Cepheids in this field gives an independent measurement of the distance modulus in good agreement with that obtained from the RR Lyr, μ0 = 24.33 ± 0.21 mag. Full Table 2 is available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/539/A138

Bulge RR Lyrae stars in the VVV tile b201

1 Instituto de Astrofisica, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Vicuna Mackenna 4860, Casilla 306, Santiago, Chile e-mail: fgran@astro.puc.cl 2 Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS), Santiago, Chile 3 Departamento de Ciencias Fisicas, Universidad Andres Bello, Republica 220, Santiago, Chile 4 Vatican Observatory, 00120 Vatican City State, Italy 5 Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Departamento de Fisica, Av. Marechal Rondon s/n, 49100-000 Sao Cristovao, SE, Brazil 6 Jordell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

Level of helium enhancement among M3’s horizontal branch stars

(Abridged) The color and luminosity distribution of horizontal branch (HB) stars in globular clusters are sensitive probes of their original helium abundances. However, recent analyses based on visual and near-ultraviolet (UV) CMDs have provided conflicting results. To clarify the situation, we address the optimum ranges of applicability (in terms of the

An AO-assisted variability study of four globular clusters

T_{eff}

Proper motions in the VVV Survey: Results for more than 15 million stars across NGC 6544

range covered by the HB stars) for visual and near-UV CMDs, as far as application of this HB

Variable stars in the globular cluster M 28 (NGC 6626)

Y

Stellar Variability at the Main-sequence Turnoff of the Intermediate-age LMC Cluster NGC 1846

test goes. We consider both Stromgren and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) bandpasses. Our results indicate that the distributions of HB stars in the y vs (b-y) plane can be a reliable indicator of the He content in cool blue HB (BHB) stars, particularly when a differential comparison between blue and red HB stars is carried out in the range