A Comparison of Optical and Near-Infrared Colours of Magellanic Cloud Star Clusters with Predictions of Simple Stellar Population Models

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

30 pages, 21 figures, 10 tables, accepted for publication at MNRAS, a full-resolution version of the manuscript is available a

Scientific paper

10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.12935.x

We present integrated JHK_s 2MASS photometry and a compilation of integrated-light optical photoelectric measurements for 84 star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds. These clusters range in age from ~200 Myr to >10 Gyr, and have [Fe/H] values from -2.2 to -0.1 dex. We find a spread in the intrinsic colours of clusters with similar ages and metallicities, at least some of which is due to stochastic fluctuations in the number of bright stars residing in low-mass clusters. We use 54 clusters with the most reliable age and metallicity estimates as test particles to evaluate the performance of four widely used SSP models in the optical/NIR colour-colour space. All models reproduce the reddening-corrected colours of the old (>10 Gyr) globular clusters quite well, but model performance varies at younger ages. In order to account for the effects of stochastic fluctuations in individual clusters, we provide composite B-V, B-J, V-J, V-Ks and J-Ks colours for Magellanic Cloud clusters in several different age intervals. The accumulated mass for most composite clusters are higher than that needed to keep luminosity variations due to stochastic fluctuations below the 10% level. The colours of the composite clusters are clearly distinct in optical-NIR colour-colour space for the following intervals of age: >10 Gyr, 2-9 Gyr, 1-2 Gyr, and 200 Myr-1 Gyr. This suggests that a combination of optical plus NIR colours can be used to differentiate clusters of different age and metallicity.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

A Comparison of Optical and Near-Infrared Colours of Magellanic Cloud Star Clusters with Predictions of Simple Stellar Population Models does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with A Comparison of Optical and Near-Infrared Colours of Magellanic Cloud Star Clusters with Predictions of Simple Stellar Population Models, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Comparison of Optical and Near-Infrared Colours of Magellanic Cloud Star Clusters with Predictions of Simple Stellar Population Models will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-159263

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.