Related papers: Age Estimation of Extragalactic Globular Cluster S…
We present preliminary results from our on-going survey of Galactic globular clusters relative ages. The investigation is based on V,I images obtained at the ESO and La Palma telescopes, which make up the largest homogenous photometric…
The recently-discovered lack of close binaries, among extreme horizontal branch (EHB) stars in Galactic globular clusters, has thus far constituted a major puzzle, in view of the fact that blue subdwarf stars - the field counterparts of…
We present accurate relative ages for a sample of 55 Galactic globular clusters. The ages have been obtained by measuring the difference between the horizontal branch and the turnoff in two, internally photometrically homogeneous databases.…
(ABRIDGED) We assess the systematic uncertainties in (young) cluster age, mass, and - to a lesser extent - extinction and metallicity determinations, based on broad-band imaging observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. Our aim here is…
This paper explores if, and to what an extent, the stellar populations of early type galaxies can be traced through the colour distribution of their globular cluster systems. The analysis, based on a galaxy sample from the Virgo ACS data,…
We have used the ``dynamical clock'' to measure the level of dynamical evolution reached by three Galactic globular clusters (namely, NGC 3201, NGC 6316 and NGC 6440). This is an empirical method that quantifies the level of central…
The dynamical evolution of globular clusters is theoretically described by a series of well known events typical of N-body systems. Still, the identification of observational signatures able to empirically describe the stage of dynamical…
It has recently been suggested that the presence of multiple populations showing various amounts of helium enhancement is the rule, rather than the exception, among globular star clusters. An important prediction of this helium enhancement…
The morphology of the Horizontal Branch (HB) in Globular Clusters (GC) is among the early evidences that they contain multiple populations of stars. Indeed, the location of each star along the HB depends both on its initial helium content…
Our picture of the age-metallicity relation for Milky Way globular clusters (MWGCs) is still highly incomplete, and the majority of MWGCs lack self-consistent age measurements. Here, we exploit deep, homogenous multi-epoch Hubble Space…
The observed abundance variations in globular cluster red giants indicate that these stars may be mixing helium from the hydrogen shell outward into the envelope, presumably as a result of internal rotation. We have investigated the…
We infer the ages of three young stellar clusters, NGC 2004, NGC 7419, and NGC 2100, using Stellar Ages, a statistical algorithm designed to infer stellar population properties from color magnitude diagrams. Recent studies have revealed…
Current stellar population models have arguably the largest uncertainties in the near-IR wavelength range, partly due to a lack of large and well calibrated empirical spectral libraries. In this paper we present a project, which aim it is…
We present a statistical approach for estimating the age of Globular Clusters by measurement of the likelihood between the observed cluster sequences in the Colour--Magnitude Diagram and the synthetic cluster sequences computed from stellar…
Globular Cluster Systems (GCSs) of most early-type galaxies feature two peaks in their optical colour distributions. Blue-peak GCs are believed to be old and metal-poor, whereas the ages, metallicities, and the origin of the red-peak GCs…
Isochrone computations and horizontal branch (HB) models for Y(MS)=0.23 and two values of Z (0.0001, 0.0004)are used to derive constraints on the age indicators and HB morphology of metal-poor clusters with age t (in Gyrs) in the range of…
We present measurements of ages, metallicities, and [alpha/Fe] ratios for 16 globular clusters (GC) in NGC 147, NGC 185, and NGC 205 and of the central regions of the diffuse galaxy light in NGC 185, and NGC 205. Our results are based on…
The interpretation of globular cluster horizontal branch (HB) morphology is a classical problem that can significantly blur our understanding of stellar populations. In this paper, we present a new multivariate analysis connecting the…
Globular star clusters that formed at the same cosmic time may have evolved rather differently from a dynamical point of view (because that evolution depends on the internal environment) through a variety of processes that tend…
The distribution of Milky Way halo blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars is examined using action-based extended distribution functions (EDFs) that describe the locations of stars in phase space, metallicity, and age. The parameters of the…