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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Star Formation And Relaxation In 379 Nearby Galaxy Clusters, Seth A. Cohen, Ryan C. Hickox, Gary A. Wegner
Star Formation And Relaxation In 379 Nearby Galaxy Clusters, Seth A. Cohen, Ryan C. Hickox, Gary A. Wegner
Dartmouth Scholarship
We investigate the relationship between star formation (SF) and level of relaxation in a sample of 379 galaxy clusters at z < 0.2. We use data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to measure cluster membership and level of relaxation, and to select star-forming galaxies based on mid-infrared emission detected with the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer. For galaxies with absolute magnitudes Mr < −19.5, we find an inverse correlation between SF fraction and cluster relaxation: as a cluster becomes less relaxed, its SF fraction increases. Furthermore, in general, the subtracted SF fraction in all unrelaxed clusters (0.117 ± 0.003) is higher than that in all relaxed clusters (0.097 ± 0.005). We verify the validity of our SF calculation methods and membership criteria through analysis of previous work. Our results agree with previous findings that a weak correlation exists between cluster SF and dynamical state, possibly because unrelaxed clusters are less evolved relative to relaxed clusters.
Ultracool White Dwarfs And The Age Of The Galactic Disc, A. Gianninas, B. Curd, John R. Thorstensen, Mukremin Kilic
Ultracool White Dwarfs And The Age Of The Galactic Disc, A. Gianninas, B. Curd, John R. Thorstensen, Mukremin Kilic
Dartmouth Scholarship
We present parallax observations and a detailed model atmosphere analysis of 54 cool and ultracool (Teff < 4000 K) white dwarfs (WDs) in the solar neighbourhood. For the first time, a large number of cool and ultracool WDs have distance and tangential velocities measurements available. Our targets have distances ranging from 21 pc to >100 pc, and include five stars within 30 pc. Contrary to expectations, all but two of them have tangential velocities smaller than 150 km s−1 thus suggesting Galactic disc membership. The oldest WDs in this sample have WD cooling ages of 10 Gyr, providing a firm lower limit to the age of the thick disc population. Many of our targets have uncharacteristically large radii, indicating that they are low mass WDs. It appears that we have detected the brighter population of cool and ultracool …