Blanco DECam Bulge Survey (BDBS) II: project performance, data analysis, and early science results

The Blanco DECam Bulge Survey (BDBS) imaged more than 200 sq deg of the Southern Galactic bulge using the ugrizY filters of the Dark Energy Camera, and produced point spread function photometry of approximately 250 million unique sources. In this paper, we present details regarding the construction...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Johnson, Christian I. (Author) , Rich, Robert Michael (Author) , Young, Michael D (Author) , Simion, Iulia T (Author) , Clarkson, William I (Author) , Pilachowski, Catherine A (Author) , Michael, Scott (Author) , Kunder, Andrea (Author) , Koch-Hansen, Andreas (Author) , Vivas, Anna Katherina (Author)
Format: Article (Journal)
Language:English
Published: 03 September 2020
In: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Year: 2020, Volume: 499, Issue: 2, Pages: 2357-2379
ISSN:1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/staa2393
Online Access:Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa2393
Get full text
Author Notes:Christian I. Johnson, Robert Michael Rich, Michael D. Young, Iulia T. Simion, William I. Clarkson, Catherine A. Pilachowski, Scott Michael, Andrea Kunder, Andreas Koch and Anna Katherina Vivas
Description
Summary:The Blanco DECam Bulge Survey (BDBS) imaged more than 200 sq deg of the Southern Galactic bulge using the ugrizY filters of the Dark Energy Camera, and produced point spread function photometry of approximately 250 million unique sources. In this paper, we present details regarding the construction and collation of survey catalogues, and also discuss the adopted calibration and dereddening procedures. Early science results are presented with a particular emphasis on the bulge metallicity distribution function and globular clusters. A key result is the strong correlation (σ ∼ 0.2 dex) between (u − i)o and [Fe/H] for bulge red clump giants. We utilized this relation to find that interior bulge fields may be well described by simple closed box enrichment models, but fields exterior to b ∼ −6° seem to require a secondary metal-poor component. Applying scaled versions of the closed box model to the outer bulge fields is shown to significantly reduce the strengths of any additional metal-poor components when compared to Gaussian mixture models. Additional results include: a confirmation that the u band splits the subgiant branch in M22 as a function of metallicity, the detection of possible extratidal stars along the orbits of M 22 and FSR 1758, and additional evidence that NGC 6569 may have a small but discrete He spread, as evidenced by red clump luminosity variations in the reddest bands. We do not confirm previous claims that FSR 1758 is part of a larger extended structure.
Item Description:Gesehen am 18.01.2021
Physical Description:Online Resource
ISSN:1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/staa2393