Related papers: Red Giant Branch Bump Star Counts in Data and Stel…
Recent asteroseismic determinations of {\Delta}M, the integrated mass loss on the red giant branch (RGB), for fields stars show a trend of {\Delta}M decreasing as metallicity increases. This trend among field stars is inconsistent with many…
We propose to use high-redshift long $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs) as cosmological tools to constrain the amount of primordial non-Gaussianity in the density field. By using numerical, N-body, hydrodynamic, chemistry simulations of different…
Galactic and extragalactic studies have shown that metal-rich globular clusters (GCs) are approximately three times more likely to host bright low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) than metal-poor GCs. There is no satisfactory explanation for…
We have measured the CH G band (CH(G)) index for evolved stars in the globular cluster M3 based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic survey. It is found that there is a useful way to select red giant branch (RGB) stars from…
We present an improved calibration of photometric metallicity indicators, derived from the new metallicity scale for Globular Clusters presented by Carretta & Gratton (1997) and based on direct high resolution spectroscopy of 160 stars in…
Robust age estimates of red giant stars are now possible thanks to the precise inference of their mass based on asteroseismic constraints. However, there are cases where such age estimates can be highly precise yet very inaccurate. An…
The lack of bright host galaxies in several recently examined gamma-ray burst (GRB) error boxes suggests that the redshifts of cosmological GRBs may be significantly higher than previously believed. On the other hand, the non-detection of…
The tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) provides a key standard candle for extragalactic distance measurements and for refining the Hubble constant. We test its robustness by quantifying how metallicity, $\alpha$-element enhancement, age,…
The gamma-ray burst (GRB) rate is essential for revealing the connection between GRBs, supernovae and stellar evolution. Additionally, the GRB rate at high redshift provides a strong probe of star formation history in the early universe.…
In this paper we present new models of massive stars based on recent advancements in the theory of diffusive mixing and a new empirical formulation of the mass-loss rates of red supergiant stars. We compute two sets of stellar models of…
Among stars in Galactic globular clusters the carbon abundance tends to decrease with increasing luminosity on the upper red giant branch, particularly within the lowest metallicity clusters. While such a phenomena is not predicted by…
Cosmological models that include suppression of the power spectrum of density fluctuations on small scales exhibit an exponential reduction of high-redshift, non-linear structures, including a reduction in the rate of gamma ray bursts…
We have used ESO telescopes at La Silla and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in order to obtain accurate B,V,I CCD photometry for the stars located within 200" (~= 2 half-mass radii, r_h = 1.71') from the center of the cluster NGC 6101.…
The effective temperature (Teff) distribution of stellar evolution models along the red giant branch (RGB) is sensitive to a number of parameters including the overall metallicity, elemental abundance patterns, the efficiency of convection,…
A recent survey of a large sample of Galactic intermediate-mass (>3 Msun) asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars shows that they exhibit large overabundances of rubidium (Rb) up to 100--1000 times solar. These observations set constraints on…
We performed a detailed study of the evolution of the luminosity of He-ignition stage and of the red giant branch bump luminosity during the red giant branch phase transition for various metallicities. To this purpose we calculated a grid…
Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are valuable probes of cosmic star formation reaching back into the epoch of reionization, and a large dataset with known redshifts ($z$) is an important ingredient for these studies. Usually, $z$ is measured using…
In this last decade, our knowledge of evolutionary and structural properties of stars of different mass and chemical composition has significantly improved. This notwithstanding, updated stellar models are still affected by significant and,…
We present an analysis of the many possible methods for simulating and analysing colour-magnitude diagrams, with application to studies of the field halo stellar populations of resolved galaxies. Special consideration is made to the…
Most current models of low mass red giant stars do not reproduce the observed position of the red giant branch luminosity bump, a diagnostic of the maximum extent of the convective envelope during the first dredge up. Global asteroseismic…