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The temperatures of red supergiants (RSGs) are expected to depend on metallicity (Z) in such a way that lower Z RSGs are warmer. In this work, we investigate the Z-dependence of the Hayashi limit by analysing RSGs in the low-Z galaxy Wolf–Lundmark–Mellote, and compare with the RSGs in the higher Z environments of the Small Magellanic Cloud and Large Magellanic Cloud. We determine the effective temperature (T eff) of each star by fitting their spectral energy distributions, as observed by VLT + SHOOTER, with MARCS model atmospheres. We find average temperatures of |$T_{\textrm {eff}_{\textrm {WLM}}}=4400\pm 202$| K, |$T_{\textrm {eff}_{\textrm {SMC}}}=4130\pm 103$| K, and |$T_{\textrm {eff}_{\textrm {LMC}}}=4140\pm 148$| K. From population synthesis analysis, we find that although the Geneva evolutionary models reproduce this trend qualitatively, the RSGs in these models are systematically too cool. We speculate that our results can be explained by the inapplicability of the standard solar mixing length to RSGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analytical chemical evolution model is constructed to investigate the radial distribution of gas-phase and stellar metallicity for star-forming galaxies. By means of the model, the gas-phase and stellar metallicity can be obtained from the stellar-to-gas mass ratio. Both the gas inflow and outflow processes play an important role in building the final gas-phase metallicity, and there exists degeneracy effect between the gas inflow and outflow rates for star-forming galaxies. On the other hand, stellar metallicity is more sensitive to the gas outflow rate than to the gas inflow rate, and this helps to break the parameter degeneracy for star-forming galaxies. We apply this analysis method to the nearby disc galaxy M 101 and adopting the classical χ2 methodology to explore the influence of model parameters on the resulted metallicity. It can be found that the combination of gas-phase and stellar metallicity is indeed more effective for constraining the gas inflow and outflow rates. Our results also show that the model with relatively strong gas outflows but weak gas inflow describes the evolution of M 101 reasonably well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a nuclear transient event, PS1-13cbe, that was first discovered in the Pan-STARRS1 survey in 2013. The outburst occurred in the nucleus of the galaxy SDSS J222153.87+003054.2 at z  = 0.123 55, which was classified as a Seyfert 2 in a pre-outburst archival Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectrum. PS1-13cbe showed the appearance of strong broad H α and H β emission lines and a non-stellar continuum in a Magellan spectrum taken 57 d after the peak of the outburst that resembled the characteristics of a Seyfert 1. These broad lines were not present in the SDSS spectrum taken a decade earlier and faded away within 2 yr, as observed in several late-time MDM spectra. We argue that the dramatic appearance and disappearance of the broad lines and a factor of ∼8 increase in the optical continuum are most likely caused by variability in the pre-existing accretion disc than a tidal disruption event, supernova, or variable obscuration. The time-scale for the turn-on of the optical emission of ∼70 d observed in this transient is among the shortest observed in a 'changing-look' active galactic nucleus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large sample of white dwarfs is selected by both proper motion and colours from the Pan-STARRS 1 |$3\pi$| Steradian Survey Processing Version 2 to construct the white dwarf luminosity functions of the discs and halo in the solar neighbourhood. Four-parameter astrometric solutions were recomputed from the epoch data. The generalized maximum volume method is then used to calculate the density of the populations. After removal of crowded areas near the Galactic plane and centre, the final sky area used by this work is 7.833 sr, which is |$83{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| of the |$3\pi$| sky and |$62{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$| of the whole sky. By dividing the sky using Voronoi tessellation, photometric and astrometric uncertainties are recomputed at each step of the integration to improve the accuracy of the maximum volume. Interstellar reddening is considered throughout the work. We find a disc-to-halo white dwarf ratio of about 100. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new 3D map of interstellar dust reddening, covering three quarters of the sky (declinations of δ ≳ −30°) out to a distance of several kiloparsecs. The map is based on high-quality stellar photometry of 800 million stars from Pan-STARRS 1 and 2MASS. We divide the sky into sightlines containing a few hundred stars each, and then infer stellar distances and types, along with the line-of-sight dust distribution. Our new map incorporates a more accurate average extinction law and an additional 1.5 yr of Pan-STARRS 1 data, tracing dust to greater extinctions and at higher angular resolutions than our previous map. Out of the plane of the Galaxy, our map agrees well with 2D reddening maps derived from far-infrared dust emission. After accounting for a 25 per cent difference in scale, we find a mean scatter of ∼10 per cent between our map and the Planck far-infrared emission-based dust map, out to a depth of 0.8 mag in E(gP1 − rP1), with the level of agreement varying over the sky. Our map can be downloaded at http://argonaut.skymaps.info, or from the Harvard Dataverse (Green 2017). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a panoramic map of the entire Milky Way halo north of δ ~ -30× (~30 000 deg²), constructed by applying the matched-filter technique to the Pan-STARRS1 3π Survey data set. Using single-epoch photometry reaching to g~22, we are sensitive to stellar substructures with heliocentric distances between 3.5 and ~35 kpc. We recover almost all previously reported streams in this volume and demonstrate that several of these are significantly more extended than earlier data sets have indicated. In addition, we also report five new candidate stellar streams. One of these features appears significantly broader and more luminous than the others and is likely the remnant of a dwarf galaxy. The other four streams are consistent with a globular cluster origin, and three of these are rather short in projection (≲10), suggesting that streams like Ophiuchus may not be that rare. Finally, a significant number of more marginal substructures are also revealed by our analysis; many of these features can also be discerned in matched-filter maps produced by other authors from SDSS data, and hence they are very likely to be genuine. However, the extant 3π data is currently too shallow to determine their properties or produce convincing colour-magnitude diagrams. The global view of the Milky Way provided by Pan-STARRS1 provides further evidence for the important role of both globular cluster disruption and dwarf galaxy accretion in building the Milky Way's stellar halo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radially averaged metallicity distribution of the interstellar medium (ISM) and the young stellar population of a sample of 20 disc galaxies is investigated by means of an analytical chemical evolution model which assumes constant ratios of galactic wind mass-loss and accretion mass gain to star formation rate. Based on this model, the observed metallicities and their gradients can be described surprisingly well by the radially averaged distribution of the ratio of stellar mass to ISM gas mass. The comparison between observed and model-predicted metallicity is used to constrain the rate of mass-loss through galactic wind and accretion gain in units of the star formation rate. Three groups of galaxies are found: galaxies with either mostly winds and only weak accretion, or mostly accretion and only weak winds, and galaxies where winds are roughly balanced by accretion. The three groups are distinct in the properties of their gas discs. Galaxies with approximately equal rates of mass-loss and accretion gain have low metallicity, atomic-hydrogen-dominated gas discs with a flat spatial profile. The other two groups have gas discs dominated by molecular hydrogen out to 0.5 to 0.7 isophotal radii and show a radial exponential decline, which is on average steeper for the galaxies with small accretion rates. The rates of accretion (≲1.0 × SFR) and outflow (≲2.4 × SFR) are relatively low. The latter depend on the calibration of the zero-point of the metallicity determination from the use of H II region strong emission lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present metallicity gradients in 49 local field star-forming galaxies. We derive gas-phase oxygen abundances using two widely adopted metallicity calibrations based on the [O III]/Hβ, [N II]/Hα, and [N II]/[O II] line ratios. The two derived metallicity gradients are usually in good agreement within ± 0.14 dexR25-1 (R25 is the B-band iso-photoal radius), but the metallicity gradients can differ significantly when the ionization parameters change systematically with radius. We investigate the metallicity gradients as a function of stellar mass (8 < log(M*/M...) < 11) and absolute B-band luminosity (-16 > MB > -22). When the metallicity gradients are expressed in dex kpc-1, we show that galaxies with lower mass and luminosity, on average, have steeper metallicity gradients. When the metallicity gradients are expressed in dexR25-1, we find no correlation between the metallicity gradients, and stellar mass and luminosity. We provide a local benchmark metallicity gradient of field star-forming galaxies useful for comparison with studies at high redshifts. We investigate the origin of the local benchmark gradient using simple chemical evolution models and observed gas and stellar surface density profiles in nearby field spiral galaxies. Our models suggest that the local benchmark gradient is a direct result of the coevolution of gas and stellar disc under virtually closed-box chemical evolution when the stellar-to-gas mass ratio becomes high (≫0.3). These models imply low current mass accretion rates (≲ 0.3 × SFR), and low-mass outflow rates (≲ 3 × SFR) in local field star-forming galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the fiducial sequences of a sample of Galactic star clusters in the five bands of the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) photometric system (gP1, rP1, iP1, zP1, and yP1). These empirical sequences – which include the red giant and sub-giant branches, the main sequence, and the horizontal branch – were defined from deep colour–magnitude diagrams reaching below the oldest main-sequence turn-offs of 13 globular and 3 old open clusters covering a wide range of metallicities ( − 2.4 ≲ [Fe/H] ≲ +0.4). We find excellent agreement for the nine clusters in common with previous studies in similar photometric systems when transformed to the PS1 system. Because the photometric and spectroscopic properties of these stellar populations are accurately known, the fiducials provide a solid basis for the interpretation of observations in the PS1 system, as well as valuable constraints to improve the empirical colour–Teff relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT The G305 H ii complex (G305.4+0.1) is one of the most massive star-forming structures yet identified within the Galaxy. It is host to many massive stars at all stages of formation and evolution, from embedded molecular cores to post-main-sequence stars. Here, we present a detailed near-infrared analysis of the two central star clusters Danks 1 and Danks 2, using Hubble Space Telescope+NICMOS imaging and Very Large Telescope+ISAAC spectroscopy. We find that the spectrophotometric distance to the clusters is consistent with the kinematic distance to the G305 complex, an average of all measurements giving a distance of 3.8 ± 0.6 kpc. From analysis of the stellar populations and the pre-main-sequence stars, we find that Danks 2 is the elder of the two clusters, with an age of 3+3− 1 Myr. Danks 1 is clearly younger with an age of 1.5+1.5− 0.5 Myr, and is dominated by three very luminous H-rich Wolf-Rayet stars which may have masses ≳100 M⊙. The two clusters have mass functions consistent with the Salpeter slope, and total cluster masses of 8000 ± 1500 and 3000 ± 800 M⊙ for Danks 1 and Danks 2, respectively. Danks 1 is significantly the more compact cluster of the two, and is one of the densest clusters in the Galaxy with log (ρ/M⊙ pc−3) = 5.5+0.5− 0.4. In addition to the clusters, there is a population of apparently isolated Wolf-Rayet stars within the molecular cloud's cavity. Our results suggest that the star-forming history of G305 began with the formation of Danks 2, and subsequently Danks 1, with the origin of the diffuse evolved population currently uncertain. Together, the massive stars at the centre of the G305 region appear to be clearing away what is left of the natal cloud, triggering a further generation of star formation at the cloud's periphery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Red supergiants (RSGs) are among the brightest stars in the local Universe, making them ideal candidates with which to probe the properties of their host galaxies. However, current quantitative spectroscopic techniques require spectral resolutions of , making observations of RSGs at distances greater than 1 Mpc unfeasible. Here we explore the potential of quantitative spectroscopic techniques at much lower resolutions, . We take archival J-band spectra of a sample of RSGs in the solar neighbourhood. In this spectral region the metallic lines of Fe i, Mg i, Si i and Ti i are prominent, while the molecular absorption features of OH, H2O, CN and CO are weak. We compare these data with synthetic spectra produced from the existing grid of model atmospheres from the MARCS project, with the aim of deriving chemical abundances. We find that all stars studied can be unambiguously fitted by the models, and model parameters of , effective temperatures Teff, microturbulence and global metal content may be derived. We find that the abundances derived for the stars are all very close to solar and have low dispersion, with an average of . The values of Teff fitted by the models are ∼150 K cooler than the stars' literature values for earlier spectral types when using the Levesque et al. temperature scale, though we find that this discrepancy may be reduced at spectral resolutions of or higher. In any case, the temperature discrepancy has very little systematic effect on the derived abundances as the equivalent widths (EWs) of the metallic lines are roughly constant across the full temperature range of RSGs. Instead, elemental abundances are the dominating factor in the EWs of the diagnostic lines. Our results suggest that chemical abundance measurements of RSGs are possible at low to medium resolution, meaning that this technique is a viable infrared-based alternative to measuring abundance trends in external galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the discovery of a thin stellar stream found in Pan-STARRS1 photometry near the Galactic bulge in the constellation of Ophiuchus. It appears as a coherent structure in the colour-selected stellar density maps produced to search for tidal debris around nearby globular clusters. The stream is exceptionally short and narrow; it is about 2 $_{.}^{\circ}$5 long and 6 arcmin wide in projection. The colour–magnitude diagram of this object, which harbours a blue horizontal-branch, is consistent with an old and relatively metal-poor population ([Fe/H] ∼−1.3) located 9.5 ± 0.9 kpc away at (l, b) ∼ (5°, +32°), and 5.0 ± 1.0 kpc from the Galactic centre. These properties argue for a globular cluster as progenitor. The finding of such a prominent, nearby stream suggests that many streams could await discovery in the more densely populated regions of our Galaxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]