Optimization of Starburst99 for Intermediate-Age and Old Stellar Populations

By G. Vázquez, C. Leitherer. 2004

416 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We have incorporated the latest release of the Padova models into the evolutionary synthesis code Starburst99. The Padova tracks were extended to include the full asymptotic giant branch (AGB) evolution until the final thermal pulse over the mass range 0.9-5 M☉. With this addition, Starburst99 accounts for all stellar phases that contribute to the integrated light of a stellar population with arbitrary age from the extreme-ultraviolet to the near-infrared. AGB stars are important for ages between 0.1 and 2 Gyr, with their contribution increasing at longer wavelengths. We investigate similarities and differences between the model predictions by the Geneva and the Padova tracks. The differences are particularly pronounced at ages >1 Gyr, when incompleteness sets in for the Geneva models. We also perform detailed comparisons with the predictions of other major synthesis codes and find excellent agreement. Our synthesized optical colors are compared to observations of old, intermediate-age, and young populations. Excellent agreement is found for the old globular cluster system of NGC 5128 and for old and intermediate-age clusters in NGC 4038/4039. In contrast, the models fail for red supergiant-dominated populations with subsolar abundances. This failure can be traced back to incorrect red supergiant parameters in the stellar evolutionary tracks. Our models and the synthesis code are publicly available as version 5.0 of Starburst99 at http://www.stsci.edu/science/starburst99.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/009fdceb104b74fb267b778607f165e42883e92f

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
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8. A. Dekel

Citations in the corpus

• A physical model for z∼ 2 dust-obscured galaxies (2009, methodology): “The stellar clusters emit a spectrum calculated by STARBURST99 (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005), where the ages and metallicities of the stars are known from the SPH simulations.”
• THE SPITZER LOCAL VOLUME LEGACY: SURVEY DESCRIPTION AND INFRARED PHOTOMETRY (2009, methodology): “The stellar curve is a 1 Gyr continuous star formation, solar metallicity curve from Vazquez & Leitherer (2005) fitted to the 2MASS data.”
• THE METALLICITY EVOLUTION OF INTERACTING GALAXIES (2011, methodology): “We calculate the mass return rate, dMgas/dt, directly from Starburst99 synthetic population models (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005; Leitherer et al. 2010).”
• THE ORIGIN AND OPTICAL DEPTH OF IONIZING RADIATION IN THE “GREEN PEA” GALAXIES (2013, methodology): “We used a Kroupa (2001) initial mass function from 0.1-150M⊙, the Padova evolutionary tracks and mass-loss rates with AGB stars (Vázquez & Leitherer 2005), and the Pauldrach et al. (2001) and Hillier & Miller (1998) stellar atmospheres.”
• CONSTRAINING THE LOW-MASS SLOPE OF THE STAR FORMATION SEQUENCE AT 0.5 < z < 2.5 (2014, methodology): “To test our assumption of solar metallicity, we compare spectra produced from the stellar synthesis code Starburst 99 (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005; Leitherer et al. 2010).”
• (Star)bursts of FIRE: observational signatures of bursty star formation in galaxies (2015, methodology): “The inputs for the feedback models (such as stellar luminosity and supernova rates) are taken directly from STARBURST99 (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005; Leitherer et al. 2010, 2014).”
• Modeling the Pan-Spectral Energy Distribution of Starburst Galaxies. IV. The Controlling Parameters of the Starburst SED (2007, methodology): “Within the code we use the standard combination of the Geneva and Padova tracks for the stellar evolution (Vázquez & Leitherer 2005), and these determine the total mechanical luminosity, Lmech.”
• THE EFFECTS OF STELLAR ROTATION. II. A COMPREHENSIVE SET OF STARBURST99 MODELS (2014, background): “The evolutionary synthesis code Starburst99 calculates theoretical properties of unresolved stellar populations with an emphasis on young, massive stars (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005; Leitherer & Chen 2009).”
• TOWARD A UNIFICATION OF STAR FORMATION RATE DETERMINATIONS IN THE MILKY WAY AND OTHER GALAXIES (2011, methodology): “Here, we will use the stellar population models employed in version 5.1 of Starburst994 (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005) and used in the SFR calibration of K+09, assuming solar metallicity.”
• A Close Look at Star Formation around Active Galactic Nuclei (2007, result): “We note that the model output of STARS is quantitatively similar to that from version 5.1 of Starburst99, which, unlike earlier versions, does include asymptotic giant branch (AGB) tracks (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vazquez & Leitherer 2005).”
• The Origin of Dwarf Ellipticals in the Virgo Cluster (2008, methodology): “…do not compute the nebular emission, but we estimated the Hα emission by using the number of ionizing photons predicted by Version 5 of STARBURST 99 (Vazquez & Leitherer 2005) for a single generation of stars distributed on the Kroupa et al. (1993) initial mass function (as used in our models),…”
• Slow Star Formation in Dense Gas: Evidence and Implications (2006, methodology): “To study the magnitude of the uncertainty that this effect induces, we use Starburst99 version 5.0 (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005) to compute the evolution of light to star formation rate and light-to-mass ratios for systems with constant star formation rates.”
• DUST-CORRECTED STAR FORMATION RATES OF GALAXIES. II. COMBINATIONS OF ULTRAVIOLET AND INFRARED TRACERS (2011, methodology): “…IMF, constant star formation history lasting for 100 Myr and solar metallicity (the magenta short dashed line), using Version 5.1 of the stellar population synthesis model STARBURST99 (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vazquez & Leitherer 2005), which uses the state-of-the-art stellar evolutionary models.”
• AN ALMA SURVEY OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES IN THE EXTENDED CHANDRA DEEP FIELD SOUTH: THE REDSHIFT DISTRIBUTION AND EVOLUTION OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES (2013, methodology): “We then define the stellar mass as the total mass in stars and stellar remnants, using Starburst99 to determine the mass lost due to winds and supernovae (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005; Leitherer et al. 2010).”
• A LIBRARY OF THEORETICAL ULTRAVIOLET SPECTRA OF MASSIVE, HOT STARS FOR EVOLUTIONARY SYNTHESIS (2010, methodology): “Significant progress in this direction has been made by employing spectral synthesis codes such as Starburst99 (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005; Leitherer & Chen 2009, and references therein).”
• A general model for the CO–H2 conversion factor in galaxies with applications to the star formation law (2011, background): “The stars emit a STARBURST99 spectrum (Leitherer et al. 1999; Vázquez & Leitherer 2005) with ages and metallicities known from the SPH simulations.”
• DIRECT OXYGEN ABUNDANCES FOR LOW-LUMINOSITY LVL GALAXIES (2012, background): “When discrepancies between models are found, they can usually be attributed to different intrinsic input parameters and/or treatment of these aberrant stellar evolutionary phases (Vázquez & Leitherer 2005; Conroy & Gunn 2010).”