Related papers: The Red Giant Branch Bump
Aims. We use the spectra of more than 30,000 red giant branch (RGB) stars in 25 globular clusters (GC), obtained within the MUSE survey of Galactic globular clusters, to calibrate the Ca II triplet (CaT) metallicity relation and derive…
We have developed an homogeneous evolutionary scenario for H- and He-burning low-mass stars by computing updated stellar models for a wide metallicity and age range (0.0002$\le Z \le$0.004 and 9$\le t(Gyr) \le$15, respectively) suitable to…
Globular cluster systems exhibit a bewildering variety of characteristics. No single scenario appears to be able to account for the wide range of specific globular cluster frequencies that are observed in galaxies of various types. The…
The tip of the red giant branch is one of the widely used distance measurement methods for the relatively nearby galaxies where the bright individual stars are resolved. Most of the earlier works have used the Photometry in the I-band such…
The evolution of low-mass stars into red giants is still poorly understood. During this evolution the core of the star contracts and, simultaneously, the envelope expands -- a process known as the `mirror'. Additionally, there is a short…
Wide-field and deep DECam multi-band photometry, combined with HST data for the core of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 2808, allowed us to study the distribution of various stellar sub-populations and stars in different evolutionary…
In this study, we extend the dust-independent Hatzidimitriou (1991) relation between cluster age and $d_{B-R}$ color difference between the red giant branch (RGB) and red clump to younger cluster ages. We perform membership analysis on…
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…
The tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) is a well-established standard candle used to measure distances to nearby galaxies. The TRGB luminosity is typically measured in the I-band, where the luminosity has little dependency on stellar age or…
The large and diffuse galaxies NGC1052-DF2 and NGC1052-DF4 have been found to have very low dark matter content and a population of luminous globular clusters. Accurate distance measurements are key to interpreting these observations.…
Blue (metal-poor) globular clusters are observed to have half-light radii that are ~20% larger than their red (metal-rich) counterparts. The origin of this enhancement is not clear and differences in either the luminosity function or in the…
We present low resolution UV-blue spectroscopic observations of red giant stars in the globular cluster M53 ([Fe/H]=-1.84), obtained to study primordial abundance variations and deep mixing via the CN and CH absorption bands. The…
Rich and massive clusters of galaxies at intermediate redshift are capable of magnifying and distorting the images of background galaxies. A comparison of different mass estimators among these clusters can provide useful information about…
Globular clusters offer ideal laboratories to test the predictions of stellar evolution. When doing so with spectroscopic analyses during the 1990s, however, the parameters we derived for hot horizontal branch stars deviated systematically…
A method for investigating the sensitivity of the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) I band magnitude $M_I$ to stellar input physics is presented.~We compute a grid of $\sim$125,000 theoretical stellar models with varying mass, initial…
Indications from Gaia data release 2 (DR2) are that the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB, a population II standard candle related to the helium flash in low mass stars) is close to -4 in absolute I magnitude in the Cousins photometric…
I review the current status of understanding when, how long, and how giant elliptical galaxies formed, focusing on the globular clusters. Several observational evidences show that massive elliptical galaxies formed at $z>2$ ($>10$ Gyr ago).…
We obtain high resolution spectra of nine red giant branch stars in NGC 6681 and perform the first detailed abundance analysis of stars in this cluster. We confirm cluster membership for these stars based on consistent radial velocities of…
We have used the AAOMEGA spectrograph to obtain R $\sim 1500$ spectra of 714 stars that are members of two red clumps in the Plaut Window Galactic bulge field $(l,b)=0^{\circ},-8^{\circ}$. We discern no difference between the clump…
Thanks to the recent very high-precision photometry of red giants from satellites such as Kepler, precise mass and radius values as well as accurate information of evolutionary stages are already established by asteroseismic approach for a…