Related papers: Horizontal-Branch Morphology as an Age Indicator

High precision trigonometric parallaxes from the HIPPARCOS satellite and accurate metal abundances ([Fe/H], [O/Fe], and [alpha/Fe]) from high resolution spectroscopy for about 30 local subdwarfs have been used to derive distances and ages…

The Second Parameter (2ndP) Problem recognizes the remarkable role played by horizontal branch (HB) morphology in the development of our understanding of globular clusters, and the Galaxy, over the last 50 years. I will describe the…

We report new HST/WFPC2 photometry for 10 globular clusters (GC) in M31 observed in F5555W(V) and F814W(I). Additionally we have reanalyzed HST archival data of comparable quality for 2 more GCs. Extraordinary care is taken to account for…

We present a statistical approach for determining the age of Globular Clusters (GCs) that allows estimating the age derived from CMDs more accurately than the conventional methods of the isochrone fitting. We measure how closely a set of…

Time-series VI CCD photometry of the globular cluster M10 (NGC 6254) is employed to perform a detailed identification, inspection of their light curves, their classification and their cluster membership, of all the known variables reported…

We present a new method to compute stellar ages in Globular Clusters (GC) that is ten times more precise than the traditional isochrone fitting procedure. The method relies on accurate stellar evolutionary tracks and on photometry for GCs…

I list the characteristic features of Globular Cluster (GC) HR diagrams which provide a complete test of the stellar evolution of low mass stars: morphologies describing the different evolutionary phases, number ratios and luminosity…

We establish a framework for determing absolute ages of Galactic globular clusters and then use these ages to investigate the age-metallicity and age-Galactocentric distance relations for the 36 clusters with the most reliable age data. The…

Recent stellar evolution models for globular clusters (GCs) in multiple population paradigm suggest that horizontal-branch (HB) morphology and mean period of type ab RR Lyrae variables are mostly determined by He & CNO abundances and…

Twenty years ago, Burstein et al. (1984)suggested that strong CN and Hbeta absorption meant younger ages among globular clusters in the Andromeda galaxy (M31), unless blue stars above the main-sequence turnoff or on the horizontal branch…

We present new VI photometry for the halo globular cluster M30 (NGC 7099), and compute luminosity functions (LFs) in both bands for samples of about 15,000 hydrogen-burning stars from near the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) to over four…

Broadband colours are often used as metallicity proxies in the study of extragalactic globular clusters. A common concern is the effect of variations in horizontal branch (HB) morphology--the second-parameter effect--on such colours. We…

The Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 camera has been used to image Andromeda III, a dwarf spheroidal companion (dSph) to M31. The resulting color-magnitude (c-m) diagrams reveal the morphology of the horizontal branch (HB) in this dwarf galaxy.…

Star clusters are crucial for understanding how stars evolve. Their colour-magnitude diagrams show the effects of stellar evolution of approximately coeval objects with the same chemical composition. Furthermore, the determination of their…

(Abridged) The rest-frame near-IR spectra of intermediate age (1-2 Gyr) stellar populations are dominated by carbon based absorption features offering a wealth of information. Yet, spectral libraries that include the near-IR wavelength…

We present precise and deep optical photometry of the globular M92. Data were collected in three different photometric systems: Sloan Digital Sky Survey (g',r',i',z'; MegaCam@CFHT), Johnson-Kron-Cousins (B, V, I; various ground-based…

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.…

The horizontal branch (HB) phase of stellar evolution plays a critical role in understanding the life cycle of stars, particularly in the context of low-mass stars. However, generating theoretical evolutionary tracks for HB stars is…

We present a new, high-resolution chronographic (age) map of the Milky Way's halo, based on the inferred ages of ~130,000 field blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars with photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Our map exhibits a strong…

We present a CCD $VI$ photometric study of the globular cluster M14. Particular attention is given to the variable stars. This allowed new classifications and cluster membership considerations. New variables are reported; 3 RRc, 18 SR and 1…