Related papers: Globular cluster luminosity function as distance i…
Luminosities and tidal radii of globular clusters have been used to estimate the perigalactic distances P of well-observed Galactic globulars that do not have collapsed cores. It is found that the cluster metallicity [Fe/H] correlates…
By virtue of their high galaxy space densities and their large spatial separations, clusters are efficient and accurate tracers of the large-scale density and velocity fields. Substantial progress has been made over the past decade in the…
We decompose the luminosity function of Galactic globular clusters into a sum of the orthogonal Gauss-Hermite functions. This method quantifies the asymmetric third-order ($h_3$) and symmetric fourth-order ($h_4$) terms of the distribution…
Hubble Space Telescope imaging for 26 giant early-type galaxies, all drawn from the MAST archive, is used to carry out photometry of their surrounding globular cluster (GC) systems. Most of these targets are Brightest Cluster Galaxies…
In the early nineties several teams started large scale systematic surveys of the Magellanic Clouds and the Galactic Bulge to search for microlensing effects. As a by product, these groups have created enormous time-series databases of…
In addition to cosmological tests based on the mass function and clustering of galaxy clusters, which probe the growth of cosmic structure, nature offers two independent ways of using clusters to measure cosmic distances. The first uses…
We use evolutionary calculations presented in a recent paper (Cassisi et al. 1998) to predict B,V,I magnitudes for stars in galactic globulars. The effect of the adopted mixing length on stellar magnitudes and colors is discussed, showing…
The cosmic distance duality relation is a milestone of cosmology involving the luminosity and angular diameter distances. Any departure of the relation points to new physics or systematic errors in the observations, therefore tests of the…
Globular clusters (GCs) are dense star clusters found in all massive galaxies. Recent work has established that they follow a tight relation between their internal stellar velocity dispersion $\sigma$ and luminosity, enabling accurate…
The extragalactic distance scale is perhaps the most important application of stellar distance indicators. Among these, classical Cepheids are high-accuracy standard candles that support a $1.4\%$ measurement of Hubble's constant, $H_0$.…
We review selected measurements of the galaxy luminosity function including the global field, the local group, the local sphere, nearby clusters (Virgo, Coma and Fornax) and clusters in general. We conclude that the overall cluster…
In this work, we obtain Hubble constant ($H_0$) estimates by using two galaxy cluster gas mass fraction measurement samples, Type Ia supernovae luminosity distances, and the validity of the cosmic distance duality relation. Notably, the…
We have used HST and ground-based photometry to determine total $V$-band magnitudes and mass-to-light ratios of more than 150 Galactic globular clusters. We do this by summing up the magnitudes of their individual member stars, using…
Type Ia supernovae are the best cosmological standard candles available. The intrinsic scatter of their decline-rate- and colour-corrected peak brightnesses in the Hubble diagram is within observational error limits, corresponding to an…
Globular clusters (GCs) are often used to estimate the dark matter content of galaxies, especially dwarfs, where other kinematic tracers are lacking. These estimates typically assume spherical symmetry and dynamical equilibrium, assumptions…
Globular clusters will be present at high redshifts, near the very beginning of the galaxy formation process. Stellar evolution ensures that they will be much more luminous than today. We show that the redshift distribution at nano-Jansky…
We use masses, radii, and luminosities of the detached eclipsing binary OGLEGC17 derived from photometric and spectroscopic observations to calculate the age and distance of the globular cluster omega Cen. Age versus turnoff mass and age…
By collecting distances from the literature, a set of 73 planetary nebulae with mean distances of high accuracy is derived. This sample is used for recalibration of the mass-radius relationship, used by many statistical distance methods. An…
V-band luminosity functions have been obtained for the upper main-sequence, sub-giant branch and red giant branch of 18 galactic globular clusters from HST data. A comparison with four sets of theoretical models has been performed. In…
We investigate the possibility of using globular clusters as targets for microlensing searches. Such searches will be challenging and require more powerful telescopes than now employed, but are feasible in the 0 future. Although expected…