Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Sep 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004sptz.prop.2345s&link_type=abstract
Spitzer Proposal ID #2345
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
The Galactic Bulge (GB), an important dynamical and morphological component of our Galaxy, offers an environment distinct from the Galactic disk, for the study of stellar populations, stellar evolution and the mass-loss processes which accompany and in the end, control the latter. Understanding and calibrating the physical processes whereby mass ejected by evolved stars into the Bulge environment is recycled back into new generations of stars requires a statistical knowledge of mass-loss as a function of fundamental stellar parameters in this region. Because of the limited sensitivity of previous surveys of the Bulge, fundamental questions for late stellar evolution such as the stage at which substantial mass-loss begins on the RGB, and its dependence on fundamental stellar properties, remain unanswered. The GB is an ideal laboratory for addressing these issues, providing a very large sample of stars at a fixed distance (8.7 kpc). We therefore propose to observe seven 15 x 15 sq. arcmin fields in and around the vicinity of the nuclear bulge with unprecedented sensitivity using MIPS and IRAC, in order to measure mass-loss rates and luminosities of a statistically large sample of stars at several Galactocentric radii in the Bulge. With these data, we will (1) detect stars with mass-loss rates a factor 50 lower than the lowest detected previously, and thus determine whether mass-loss rate is already prevalent on the RGB, (2) determine the functional dependence of the mass-loss rate on luminosity (L) and effective temperature (T) for low values of L and T, (3) determine the evolution of mass-loss rate as stars evolve up the RGB and then to the AGB, and (4) determine the census of mass-losing stars at different rates. The proposed observations, together with existing studies which probe higher mass-loss rate stars, will enable us to infer the total rate of mass loss in the bulge, a key input to evolutionary models of the bulge.
Blommaert Joris
Groenewegen Martin
Kraemer Kathleen
Morris Mark
Omont Alain
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