Giants in the globular cluster omega Centauri: dust production, mass loss and distance

TL;DR

This study models the spectral energy distributions of thousands of stars in omega Centauri to estimate its distance, reddening, and mass-loss rates, revealing significant dust production and mass loss, especially from a few extreme stars.

Contribution

It provides a new distance estimate, identifies new post-early-AGB candidates, and analyzes dust and gas mass-loss rates in omega Centauri with detailed spectroscopy of key stars.

Findings

Distance to omega Centauri is 4850 +/- 200 pc.

Total dust mass-loss rate is approximately 1.3 x 10^-9 Msun/yr.

Mass loss occurs predominantly on the RGB, with significant dust production from a few stars.

Abstract

We present spectral energy distribution modelling of 6875 stars in omega Centauri, obtaining stellar luminosities and temperatures by fitting literature photometry to state-of-the-art MARCS stellar models. By comparison to four different sets of isochrones, we provide a new distance estimate to the cluster of 4850 +/- 200 (random) +/- 120 (systematic error) pc, a reddening of E(B-V) = 0.08 +/- 0.02 +/- 0.02 mag and a differential reddening of Delta[E(B-V)] < 0.02 mag for an age of 12 Gyr. Several new post-early-AGB candidates are also found. Infra-red excesses of stars were used to measure total mass-loss rates for individual stars down to ~7 x 10^-8 Msun/yr. We find a total dust mass-loss rate from the cluster of 1.3 (+0.8/-0.5) x 10^-9 Msun/yr, with the total gas mass-loss rate being > 1.2 (+0.6/-0.5) x 10^-6 Msun/yr. Half of the cluster's dust production and 30% of its gas production comes from the two most extreme stars - V6 and V42 - for which we present new Gemini/T-ReCS mid-infrared spectroscopy, possibly showing that V42 has carbon-rich dust. The cluster's dust temperatures are found to be typically >~550 K. Mass loss apparently does not vary significantly with metallicity within the cluster, but shows some correlation with barium enhancement, which appears to occur in cooler stars, and especially on the anomalous RGB. Limits to outflow velocities, dust-to-gas ratios for the dusty objects and the possibility of short-timescale mass-loss variability are also discussed in the context of mass loss from low-metallicity stars. The ubiquity of dust around stars near the RGB-tip suggests significant dusty mass loss on the RGB; we estimate that typically 0.20--0.25 Msun of mass loss occurs on the RGB. From observational limits on intra-cluster material, we suggest the dust is being cleared on a timescale of <~10^5 years.