J/ApJ/804/71        HST/WFC3 observations of stars in M15        (Larsen+, 2015)

Radial distributions of sub-populations in the globular cluster M15: a more centrally concentrated primordial population. Larsen S.S., Baumgardt H., Bastian N., Brodie J.P., Grundahl F., Strader J. <Astrophys. J., 804, 71 (2015)> =2015ApJ...804...71L 2015ApJ...804...71L
ADC_Keywords: Clusters, globular ; Photometry, HST Keywords: globular clusters: individual: M15; Hertzsprung-Russell and C-M diagrams; stars: abundances Abstract: We examine the radial distributions of stellar populations in the globular cluster (GC) M15, using Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) photometry of red giants in the nitrogen-sensitive F343N-F555W color. Surprisingly, we find that giants with "primordial" composition (i.e., N abundances similar to those in field stars) are the most centrally concentrated within the WFC3 field. We then combine our WFC3 data with Sloan Digital Sky Survey u,g photometry and find that the trend reverses for radii ≳1' (3pc) where the ratio of primordial to N-enhanced giants increases outward, as already found by Lardo et al. (2011A&A...525A.114L 2011A&A...525A.114L). The ratio of primordial to enriched stars thus has a U-shaped dependency on radius with a minimum near the half-light radius. N-body simulations show that mass segregation might produce a trend resembling the observed one, but only if the N-enhanced giants are ∼0.25M less massive than the primordial giants, which requires extreme He enhancement (Y≳0.40). However, such a large difference in Y is incompatible with the negligible optical color differences between primordial and enriched giants, which suggest ΔY≲0.03 and thus a difference in turn-off mass of ΔM≲0.04M between the different populations. The radial trends in M15 are thus unlikely to be of dynamical origin and presumably reflect initial conditions, a result that challenges all current GC formation scenarios. We note that population gradients in the central regions of GCs remain poorly investigated and may show a more diverse behavior than hitherto thought. Description: As part of our HST program (Program ID: GO-13295, P.I.: S. S. Larsen) to study the GCs in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Larsen et al. 2014, J/ApJ/797/15, Paper I), we obtained short exposures of M15 in the same filters as those used for our main program: F343N, F555W, and F814W. In addition to our own WFC3 data, we use imaging of M15 in the F606W and F814W filters obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on HST as part of the ACS Galactic GC Survey (ACSGCS; Sarajedini et al. 2007AJ....133.1658S 2007AJ....133.1658S). File Summary: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FileName Lrecl Records Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ReadMe 80 . This file table1.dat 89 4373 *ALLFRAME photometry of M15 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note on table1.dat: Point-spread function (PSF) fitting photometry was carried out with ALLFRAME (Stetson 1994PASP..106..250S 1994PASP..106..250S) and calibrated to standard STMAG magnitudes as described in Paper I (Larsen et al., 2014, J/ApJ/797/15). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See also: B/hst : HST Archived Exposures Catalog (STScI, 2007) VII/202 : Globular Clusters in the Milky Way (Harris, 1997) J/ApJ/797/15 : HST/WFC3 obs. in 4 metal-poor GCs of Fornax (Larsen+, 2014) J/PASP/126/733 : BVI photometry of M15 stars (Feuillet+, 2014) J/MNRAS/423/2260 : VI photometry of M15 core (Diaz-Sanchez+, 2012) J/A+A/534/A9 : Synthetic spectra of galactic GCs (Sbordone+, 2011) J/AJ/141/175 : Abundances in M15 RGB/RHB stars (Sobeck+, 2011) J/A+A/524/A44 : CN and CH line strengths in 12 globulars (Pancino+, 2010) J/A+A/505/117 : Abundances of red giants in 15 GCs (Carretta+, 2009) J/A+A/486/437 : CN and CH line strengths in 8 Galactic GlCl (Kayser+, 2008) J/AJ/130/1177 : C and N abundances for M15 stars (Cohen+, 2005) J/A+A/354/169 : Metal-poor field stars abundances (Gratton+, 2000) J/A+AS/139/393 : Young Massive Star Clusters. II. (Larsen, 1999) J/AJ/107/1745 : HST UVI photometry of M15. II. (Yanny+, 1994) J/AJ/106/154 : HST Observations in inner region of M15 (Ferraro+ 1993) Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bytes Format Units Label Explanations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1- 6 I6 --- ID [102/569880] Source identifier 8- 14 F7.2 pix Xpix X pixel coordinate on drizzled CCD frame 16- 22 F7.2 pix Ypix Y pixel coordinate on drizzled CCD frame 24- 33 F10.6 deg RAdeg Right Ascension; decimal degrees (J2000) 35- 43 F9.6 deg DEdeg Declination; decimal degrees (J2000) 45- 50 F6.2 arcsec R [4/130] Projected distance from cluster center 52- 57 F6.3 mag F343N [15.9/20.8] HST/WFC3 F343N filter ALLFRAME STMAG magnitude 59- 63 F5.3 mag e_F343N [0.005/0.3] Error in F343N 65- 70 F6.3 mag F555W [14.9/19] HST/WFC3 F555W filter ALLFRAME STMAG magnitude 72- 76 F5.3 mag e_F555W [0.004/0.2] Error in F555W 78- 83 F6.3 mag F814W [15/20.5] HST/WFC3 F814W filter ALLFRAME STMAG magnitude 85- 89 F5.3 mag e_F814W [0.006/0.5] Error in F814W -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History: From electronic version of the journal Reference: Larsen et al. Paper I. 2014ApJ...797...15L 2014ApJ...797...15L Cat. J/ApJ/797/15
(End) Greg Schwarz [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 04-Aug-2015
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