Examinando por Autor "Pietrinferni, A."

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    On the Impact of Helium Content on the RR Lyrae Distance Scale
    (Institute of Physics Publishing, 2018-09) Marconi, M.; Bono, G.; Pietrinferni, A.; Braga, V.F.; Castellani, M.; Stellingwerf, R.F.
    We constructed new sets of He-enhanced (Y = 0.30, Y = 0.40) nonlinear, time-dependent convective hydrodynamical models of RR Lyrae (RRL) stars covering a broad range in metal abundances (Z = 0.0001-0.02). The increase in He content from the canonical value (Y = 0.245) to Y = 0.30-0.40 causes a simultaneous increase in stellar luminosity and in pulsation period. To investigate the dependence of the RRL distance scale on the He abundance, we computed new optical (RI) and near-infrared (JHK) Period-luminosity-metallicity-helium relations. Interestingly enough, the increase in He content causes a minimal change in the coefficients of both period and metallicity terms, since canonical and He-enhanced models obey similar PLZ relations. On the contrary, the classical B-And V-band mean magnitude metallicity relations and the R-band PLZ relation display a significant dependence on the He content. The He-enhanced models are, at fixed metal content, 0.2-0.5 mag brighter than canonical ones. This variation is only marginally affected by evolutionary effects. The quoted distance diagnostics once calibrated with trigonometric parallaxes (Gaia) will provide the opportunity to estimate the He content of field and cluster RRLs. Moreover, the use of either spectroscopic or photometric metal abundances will pave the way to new empirical constraints on the universality of the helium-To-metal enrichment ratio in old (t10 Gyr) stellar tracers. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
  • Miniatura
    Ítem
    On the RR Lyrae Stars in Globulars. V. the Complete Near-infrared (JHK s) Census of ω Centauri RR Lyrae Variables
    (nstitute of Physics Publishing, 2018-03) Braga, V.F.; Stetson, P.B.; Bono, G.; Dall'Ora, M.; Ferraro, I.; Fiorentino, G.; Iannicola, G.; Marconi, M.; Marengo, M.; Monson, A.J.; Neeley, J.; Persson, S.E.; Beaton, R.L.; Buonanno, R.; Calamida, A.; Castellani, M.; Carlo, E.D.; Fabrizio, M.; Freedman, W.L.; Inno, L.; Madore, B.F.; Magurno, D.; Marchetti, E.; Marinoni, S.; Marrese, P.; Matsunaga, N.; Minniti, D.; Monelli, M.; Nonino, M.; Piersimoni, A.M.; Pietrinferni, A.; Prada-Moroni, P.; Pulone, L.; Stellingwerf, R.; Tognelli, E.; Walker, A.R.; Valenti, E.; Zoccali, M.
    We present a new complete near-infrared (NIR, JHK s) census of RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) in the globular ω Cen (NGC 5139). We collected 15,472 JHK s images with 4-8 m class telescopes over 15 years (2000-2015) covering a sky area around the cluster center of 60 ×34 arcmin2. These images provided calibrated photometry for 182 out of the 198 cluster RRL candidates with 10 to 60 measurements per band. We also provide new homogeneous estimates of the photometric amplitude for 180 (J), 176 (H) and 174 (K s) RRLs. These data were supplemented with single-epoch JK s magnitudes from VHS and with single-epoch H magnitudes from 2MASS. Using proprietary optical and NIR data together with new optical light curves (ASAS-SN) we also updated pulsation periods for 59 candidate RRLs. As a whole, we provide JHK s magnitudes for 90 RRab (fundamentals), 103 RRc (first overtones) and one RRd (mixed-mode pulsator). We found that NIR/optical photometric amplitude ratios increase when moving from first overtone to fundamental and to long-period (P > 0.7 days) fundamental RRLs. Using predicted period-luminosity-metallicity relations, we derive a true distance modulus of 13.674 ± 0.008 ±0.038 mag (statistical error and standard deviation of the median) based on spectroscopic iron abundances, and of 13.698 ±0.004 ±0.048 mag based on photometric iron abundances. We also found evidence of possible systematics at the 5%-10% level in the zero-point of the period-luminosity relations based on the five calibrating RRLs whose parallaxes had been determined with the HST. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.