Related papers: Unresolved versus resolved: testing the validity o…
High resolution spectral models for simple stellar populations (SSP) developed in the past few years have become a standard ingredient in studies of stellar population of galaxies. As more such models become available, it becomes…
Simple stellar population (SSP) synthesis models are useful tools for studying the nature of unresolved star clusters in external galaxies. However, the plethora of currently available SSP models gives rise to significant and poorly…
The unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution of next generation ground-based extremely large telescopes (ELTs) will open a completely new window on the study of resolved stellar populations. In this paper we study the feasibility of…
Establishing the reliability with which stellar population parameters can be measured is vital to extragalactic astronomy. Galactic GCs provide an excellent medium in which to test the consistency of Single Stellar Population (SSP) models…
We investigate the precision of the ages and metallicities of 21,000 mock simple stellar populations (SSPs) determined through full-spectrum fitting. The mock SSPs cover an age range of 6.8 $<$ log (age/yr) $<$ 10.2, for three wavelength…
The optical integrated spectra of three LMC young stellar clusters (NGC 1984, NGC 1994 and NGC 2011) exhibit concave continua and prominent molecular bands which deviate significantly from the predictions of single stellar population (SSP)…
Observations show that nearly all star clusters and stellar populations contain blue straggler stars (BSs). BSs in a cluster can significantly enhance the integrated spectrum of the host population, preferentially at short wavelengths, and…
We present high S/N integrated spectra of 24 star clusters in the LMC obtained using the FLAIR spectrograph at the UK Schmidt. The spectra have been placed onto the Lick/IDS system in order to test the calibration of Simple Stellar…
Context: Analysis of ages and metallicities of star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds provide information for studies on the chemical evolution of the Clouds and other dwarf irregular galaxies. Aims: The aim is to derive ages and…
In this paper, I review to what extent we can understand the photometric properties of star clusters, and of low-mass, unresolved galaxies, in terms of population synthesis models designed to describe `simple stellar populations' (SSPs),…
Stellar population synthesis (SPS) models are a key tool for deriving the age, metallicity, radial velocity and reddening of star clusters from their integrated spectra. Using a sample of 129 star clusters with high-quality spectra, we…
Aims. We aim to characterize the properties of the stellar populations in the central few hundred parsecs of nearby galactic nuclei; specifically their age, mass, and 3D geometry. Methods. We use spatially resolved spectroscopic…
The Milky Way's nuclear star cluster (NSC) is a unique laboratory to study the formation and evolution of dense stellar systems around a supermassive black hole. Previous work suggests that most stars in the NSC are old; however, the…
In this second paper of a series on the accuracy and precision of the determination of age and metallicity of simple stellar populations (SSPs) by means of the full spectrum fitting technique, we study the influence of star cluster mass…
In this third paper of a series on the precision of obtaining ages of stellar populations using the full spectrum fitting technique, we examine the precision of this technique in deriving possible age spreads within a star cluster. We test…
Fitting whole spectra at intermediate spectral resolution (R = 1000 -- 3000), to derive physical properties of stellar populations, appears as an optimized alternative to methods based on spectrophotometric indices: it uses all the…
The number of methods used to study the properties of galaxies is increased, and testing these methods is very important. Galactic globular clusters (GCs) provide an excellent medium for such test, because they can be considered as simple…
In integrated-light, some color-color diagrams that use optical and near-infrared photometry show surprisingly orthogonal grids as age and metallicity are varied, and they are coming into common usage for estimating the average age and…
We study the simple-stellar-population-equivalent (SSP-equivalent) age and chemical composition measured from the Lick/IDS line-strength indices of composite stellar populations (CSP). We build two sets of ~30000 CSP models using stellar…
Spectra of galaxies contain an enormous amount of information about the relative mixture of ages and metallicities of constituent stars. We present a comprehensive study designed to extract the maximum information from spectra of data…