Star clusters in the Small Magellanic Clouds

Author(s)

Bruno Moreira de Souza Dias

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto Astronômico e Geofísico (IAG/SBD)
• Defense date: 2010-03-22

Examining board members

Beatriz Leonor Silveira Barbuy; Paula Rodrigues Teixeira Coelho; Silvia Cristina Fernandes Rossi

• Advisor: Beatriz Leonor Silveira Barbuy

Abstract

Analysis of age and metallicity of star clusters in Magellanic Clouds brings information to studies on the chemical evolution and dynamics of the Clouds. By using them as calibrators of single stellar populations models, this type of analysis is also useful for the study of other galaxies. One of the aims of this work is to derive ages and metallicities from integrated spectra of 14 clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud. We seek for the understanding, in particular, of the intermediate/old age clusters. The method used for this purpose is based on full spectrum tting of integrated spectra of the clusters, comparing them to three sets of single stellar populations; two codes available in the literature are used to do such comparisons. Thus 9 clusters are identied as intermediate/old age clusters and 5 other as young ones. Noteworthy are the results for the clusters with intermediate/old age newly identied: HW 1, NGC 152, Lindsay 3, 11 and 113. We also conrm the old ages of NGC 361, 419 and Kron 3, and of the well-known oldest cluster of the Small Cloud, NGC 121. Another aim is to determine self-consistent physical parameters (age, metallicity, distance and reddening) for 7 relatively unstudied stellar clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud, with ages between 0.5 and 5 Gyr. We use statistical tools to compare synthetic and observed CMDs. Dierently of a visual isochrone t, this approach oers ob jective and unambiguous criteria to establish which are the synthetic CMDs that best ts the observed CMD. Preliminary results show the eciency of this method, which determines log(age), with an uncertainty of 0.10 and [Fe/H], with 0.20. This can introduce new and important constraints in the age-metallicity relation for the Small Cloud, which is signicantly more complex and less studied than the one of the Large Magellanic Cloud. (AU)