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Lego Figure holding a lego telescope. Photo

Arne Ardeberg

Professor emeritus

Lego Figure holding a lego telescope. Photo

The usage of Stromgren photometry in studies of local group dwarf spheroidal galaxies - Application to Draco: a new catalogue of Draco members and a study of the metallicity distribution function and radial gradients

Author

  • Daniel Faria
  • Sofia Feltzing
  • Ingemar Lundström
  • G. Gilmore
  • Glenn Wahlgren
  • Arne Ardeberg
  • Peter Linde

Summary, in English

Aims. In this paper we demonstrate how Stromgren uvby photometry can be efficiently used to: 1. identify red giant branch stars that are members in a dwarf spheroidal galaxy; 2. derive age-independent metallicities for the same stars and quantify the associated errors. Methods. Stromgren uvby photometry in a 11 x 22 arcmin field centered on the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy was obtained using the Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma. Members of the Draco dSph galaxy were identified using the surface gravity sensitive c(1) index which discriminates between red giant and dwarf stars. Thus enabling us to distinguish the (red giant branch) members of the dwarf spheroidal galaxy from the foreground dwarf stars in our galaxy. The method is evaluated through a comparison of our membership list with membership classifications in the literature based on radial velocities and proper motions. The metallicity sensitive m(1) index was used to derive individual and age-independent metallicities for the members of the Draco dSph galaxy. The derived metallicities are compared to studies based on high resolution spectroscopy and the agreement is found to be very good. Results. We present metallicities for 169 members of the red giant branch in the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy (the largest sample to date). The metallicity distribution function for the Draco dSph galaxy shows a mean [Fe/H] = -1.74 dex with a spread of 0.24 dex. The correlation between metallicity and colour for the stars on the red giant branch is consistent with a dominant old, and coeval population. There is a possible spatial population gradient over the field with the most metal-rich stars being more centrally concentrated than the metal-poor stars.

Department/s

  • Lund Observatory - Undergoing reorganization

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Pages

28-357

Publication/Series

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Volume

465

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

EDP Sciences

Topic

  • Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Keywords

  • galaxies :
  • galaxies : individual : Draco dSph
  • galaxies : dwarf
  • photometry
  • galaxies : stellar content
  • individual : UGC 10822
  • Local Group

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0004-6361