H{alpha} stars in M31 HST photometry

DOI

We present a sample of 224 stars that emit H{alpha} (H{alpha} stars) in the Andromeda galaxy (M31). The stars were selected from ~5000 spectra, collected as part of the Spectroscopic and Photometric Landscape of Andromeda's Stellar Halo survey using Keck II/DEIMOS. We used six-filter Hubble Space Telescope photometry from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury survey to classify and investigate the properties of the H{alpha} stars. We identified five distinct categories of H{alpha} star: B-type main-sequence (MS) stars, 'transitioning'-MS (T-MS) stars, red core He burning (RHeB) stars, non-C-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, and C-rich AGB stars. We found that ~12 per cent of B-type stars exhibit H{alpha} emission (Be stars). The frequency of Be to all B stars is known to vary with the metallicity of their environment. Comparing this proportion of Be stars with other environments around the Local Group, the result could indicate that M31 is more metal-rich than the Milky Way. We predict that the 17 T-MS H{alpha} stars are Be stars evolving off the MS with fading H{alpha} emission. We separated RHeB from AGB H{alpha} stars. We conclude that the 61 RHeB and AGB stars are likely to be long-period variables. We found that ~14 per cent of C-rich AGB stars (C stars) emit H{alpha}, which is an upper limit for the ratio of C-rich Miras to C stars. This catalogue of H{alpha} stars will be useful to constrain stellar evolutionary models, calibrate distance indicators for intermediate-age populations, and investigate the properties of M31.

Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/465/4180/tablea1 (List of selected H{alpha} stars)

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.74654180
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/465/4180
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/465/4180
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/465/4180
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/465/4180
Provenance
Creator Prichard L.J.; Guhathakurta P.; Hamren K.M.; Dalcanton J.J.; Dorman C.E.,Seth A.C.; Williams B.F.; Damon G.A.; Ilango A.; Ilango M.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2019
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Exoplanet Astronomy; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy