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Title:
The Star Formation Histories of the Bulge and Disk of M31 from Resolved Stars in the Near-Infrared
Authors:
Olsen, Knut A. G.; Blum, Robert D.; Stephens, Andrew W.; Davidge, Tim J.; Massey, Philip; Strom, Stephen E.; Rigaut, François
Affiliation:
AA(National Optical Astronomy Observatory, CTIO, Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile; , ), AB(National Optical Astronomy Observatory, CTIO, Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile; , ), AC(Gemini Observatory, 670 North A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720; ), AD(Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada; ), AE(Lowell Observatory, 1400 West Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001; ), AF(National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719; ), AG(Gemini Observatory, 670 North A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720; )
Publication:
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 132, Issue 1, pp. 271-289. (AJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
07/2006
Origin:
UCP
AJ Keywords:
Galaxies: Individual: Messier Number: M31, Galaxies: Stellar Content, Instrumentation: Adaptive Optics, Galaxies: Local Group, Techniques: Photometric
DOI:
10.1086/504900
Bibliographic Code:
2006AJ....132..271O

Abstract

We discuss H and K observations of three fields in the bulge and disk of M31 obtained with the ALTAIR adaptive optics system and NIRI instrument on Gemini North. These are the highest resolution and deepest near-infrared observations obtained to date of the inner regions of M31 and demonstrate the promise of ground-based adaptive optics for studying the crowded regions of nearby galaxies. We have combined our observations with previously published Hubble Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer observations of nine M31 fields and have derived the coarse star formation histories of M31's bulge and inner disk. From fits to the MK luminosity functions, we find the stellar population mix to be dominated by old, nearly solar-metallicity stars. The old populations, which we define as having age >~6 Gyr, indeed dominate the star formation histories at all radii independent of the relative contributions of bulge and disk stars. Although all of our fields contain some bulge contribution, our results suggest that there is no age difference between the bulge and disk to the limit of our precision.

Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF) on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the NSF (United States), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), CNPq (Brazil), and CONICET (Argentina). Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

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