Related papers: Confidence limits of evolutionary synthesis models…
A quantitative method is presented to compare observed and synthetic colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). The method is based on a chi^2 merit function for a point (c_i,m_i) in the observed CMD, which has a corresponding point in the simulated…
Stellar population synthesis (SPS) models are invaluable to study star clusters and galaxies. They provide means to extract stellar masses, stellar ages, star formation histories, chemical enrichment and dust content of galaxies from their…
We describe a novel method for determining the demographics of a population of star clusters, for example distributions of cluster mass and age, from unresolved photometry. This method has a number of desirable properties: it fully exploits…
We present a thermodynamic theory for a generic population of $M$ individuals distributed into $N$ groups (clusters). We construct the ensemble of all distributions with fixed $M$ and $N$, introduce a selection functional that embodies the…
This paper is the 4th in a series describing the latest additions to the BaSTI stellar evolution database, which consists of a large set of homogeneous models and tools for population synthesis studies. Here we present a new set of low and…
(Abridged) We describe a new method to extract spectra of stars from observations of crowded stellar fields with integral field spectroscopy (IFS). Our approach extends the well-established concept of crowded field photometry in images into…
Detached white dwarf + main sequence (WD+MS) systems represent the simplest population of post-common envelope binaries (PCEBs). Since the ensemble properties of this population carries important information about the characteristics of the…
We construct evolutionary synthesis models for simple stellar populations using the evolutionary tracks from the Padova group (1993, 1994), theoretical colour calibrations from Lejeune et al., and fit functions for stellar atmospheric…
We investigate the power of spectral synthesis as a mean to estimate physical properties of galaxies. Spectral synthesis is nothing more than the decomposition of an observed spectrum in terms of a superposition of a base of simple stellar…
Uncertainties in stellar population models, both in terms of stellar evolution and stellar spectra, translate into uncertainties in our interpretation of stellar populations in galaxies, since stars are the source of most of the light we…
This paper introduces the idea that the general mixing inequality obeyed by evolving stellar phase densities may place useful constraints on the possible history of the over-all galaxy population. We construct simple models for the full…
Retrieving the Star Formation History (SFH) of a galaxy out of its integrated spectrum is the central goal of stellar population synthesis. Recent advances in evolutionary synthesis models have given new breath to this old field of…
In this work we focus on the determination of the relative distributions of young, intermediate-age and old populations of stars in galaxies. Starting from a grid of theoretical population synthesis models we constructed a set of model…
When evolutionary synthesis models take into account the stochastic nature of the IMF together with the discrete number of stars in real stellar clusters, typical output turns to dispersion band (where real data can be placed) instead of…
As the total mass of stellar populations of fixed IMF, age and metallicity tends to infinity, resulting intrinsic $M/L$ values quickly converge to fixed numbers associated to the particulars of the stars in question. When going to very…
Ranging from track interpolation techniques through model atmospheres to the stochastic nature of the IMF, there are many uncertainties which need to be taken into account when modelling HR diagrams or performing population synthesis,…
Stellar clusters are thought to be the simplest stellar systems and the closest observational counterparts to theoretical models for single stellar populations. Progress in our understanding of the atmospheres and evolution of massive stars…
The derivation of accurate stellar populations of galaxies is a non-trivial task because of the well-known age-metallicity degeneracy. We aim to break this degeneracy by invoking a chemical evolution model(CEM) for isolated disk galaxy,…
Accurate specification of a likelihood function is becoming increasingly difficult in many inference problems in astronomy. As sample sizes resulting from astronomical surveys continue to grow, deficiencies in the likelihood function lead…
We present a new model for computing the spectral evolution of stellar populations at ages between 100,000 yr and 20 Gyr at a resolution of 3 A across the whole wavelength range from 3200 to 9500 A for a wide range of metallicities. These…