The Infrared Massive Stellar Content of M83

TL;DR

This study combines infrared and optical imaging data to identify and classify rare, dusty, evolved massive stars in M83, providing a catalog of promising candidates for further spectroscopic analysis.

Contribution

It presents a new multi-wavelength catalog of massive stellar candidates in M83, utilizing combined IR and optical data to improve identification accuracy.

Findings

Identified 185 massive evolved star candidates in M83.

Found 49 strong candidates for massive stars, including red supergiants.

Estimated that at least 24 of these candidates are red supergiants.

Abstract

We present an analysis of archival Spitzer images and new ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) near-infrared (IR) and optical images of the field of M83 with the goal of identifying rare, dusty, evolved massive stars. We present point source catalogs consisting of 3778 objects from $Spitzer$ Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) Band 1 (3.6 $\mu$m) and Band 2 (4.5 $\mu$m), and 975 objects identified in Magellan 6.5m FourStar near-IR $J$ and $K_{\rm s}$ images. A combined catalog of coordinate matched near- and mid-IR point sources yields 221 objects in the field of M83. Using this photometry we identify 185 massive evolved stellar candidates based on their location in color-magnitude and color-color diagrams. We estimate the background contamination to our stellar candidate lists and further classify candidates based on their appearance in $HST$ Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) observations of M83. We find 49 strong candidates for massive stars which are very promising objects for spectroscopic follow-up. Based on their location in a $B-V$ versus $V-I$ diagram, we expect at least 24, or roughly 50%, to be confirmed as red supergiants.