Globular Cluster UVIT Legacy Survey (GlobULeS) - I. FUV-optical colour-magnitude diagrams for eight globular clusters

Snehalata Sahu, Annapurni Subramaniam, Gaurav Singh, Ramakant Yadav, Aldo R. Valcarce, Samyaday Choudhury, Sharmila Rani, Deepthi S. Prabhu, Chul Chung, Patrick Côt, Nathan Leigh, Aaron M. Geller, Sourav Chatterjee, N. Kameswara Rao, Avrajit Bandyopadhyay, Michael Shara, Emanuele Dalessandro, Gajendra Pandey, Joesph E. Postma, John HutchingsMirko Simunovic, Peter B. Stetson, Sivarani Thirupathi, Thomas Puzia, Young Jong Sohn

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12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We present the first results of eight globular clusters (GCs) from the AstroSat/UVIT Legacy Survey programme GlobULeS based on the observations carried out in two far-ultraviolet (FUV) filters (F148W and F169M). The FUV-optical and FUV-FUV colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of GCs with the proper motion membership were constructed by combining the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) data with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) UV Globular Cluster Survey data for inner regions and Gaia Early Data Release for regions outside the HST's field. We detect sources as faint as F148W ∼23.5 mag, which are classified based on their locations in CMDs by overlaying stellar evolutionary models. The CMDs of eight GCs are combined with the previous UVIT studies of three GCs to create stacked FUV-optical CMDs to highlight the features/peculiarities found in the different evolutionary sequences. The FUV (F148W) detected stellar populations of 11 GCs comprise 2816 horizontal branch (HB) stars [190 extreme HB (EHB) candidates], 46 post-HB (pHB), 221 blue straggler stars (BSSs), and 107 white dwarf (WD) candidates. We note that the blue HB colour extension obtained from F148W - G colour and the number of FUV detected EHB candidates are strongly correlated with the maximum internal helium (He) variation within each GC, suggesting that the FUV-optical plane is the most sensitive to He abundance variations in the HB. We discuss the potential science cases that will be addressed using these catalogues including HB morphologies, BSSs, pHB, and WD stars.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1122-1139
Number of pages18
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume514
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022 Jul 1

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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