Stellar Populations in the M31 Disk

Details Stellar Populations in the M31 Disk Stellar Populations in the M31 Disk

Jul 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996hst..prop.6859t&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #6859

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #6859 Stellar Populations

Scientific paper

We will study the stellar populations in two fields in the disk of M31 using WFPC2. The fields lie at galactocentric radii of 6 and 25 kpc, and were selected to avoid spiral arms and have low, uniform extinction. We will construct color-magnitude diagrams from photometry of individual stars down to V 27, corresponding to M{V} 2.5. The location of the giant branches will be used to infer metallicity gradients in the disk of M31. We will also measure the dispersion in metallicity and look for evidence of bi- or multi- modality. The ability to observe faint will allow us to disentangle the effects of age and metallicity on the location and spread of the giant branch because if younger stars are present, we will see the upper main sequence. In addition, high spatial resolution is required to get sufficiently accurate photometry in the crowded inner disk fields to study giant brach morphology. If an upper main sequence is seen, we will use the observed width of the main sequence to constrain star formation histories over the past 2 Gyr. By comparing the number of main sequence stars to giants, we will estimate the relative fraction of stars formed before and after 2 Gyr ago. We will try to measure the IMF {over a limited mass range} from the observed main sequence luminosity function. These data will put significantly new constraints on theories of spiral galaxy formation, since M31 is the only large spiral galaxy apart from the Milky Way in which we can study individual stars.

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