A Panchromatic Study of Massive Stars in the Extremely Metal-Poor Local Group Dwarf Galaxy Leo A

TL;DR

This study characterizes massive stars in the extremely metal-poor galaxy Leo A using multi-wavelength imaging and spectroscopy, revealing enhanced stellar activity, unique Be star properties, and reliable parameter estimation methods at low metallicity.

Contribution

First spectroscopic study of Be stars at such low metallicity and validation of imaging-based stellar parameter determination methods in extremely metal-poor environments.

Findings

12 stars show emission lines without H II regions, indicating stellar activity.

First spectroscopic analysis of Be stars at low metallicity with unusual SEDs.

Photometric and spectroscopic stellar parameters agree within small uncertainties.

Abstract

We characterize massive stars (M>8 M_sun) in the nearby (D~0.8 Mpc) extremely metal-poor (Z~5% Z_sun) galaxy Leo A using Hubble Space Telescope ultra-violet (UV), optical, and near-infrared (NIR) imaging along with Keck/LRIS and MMT/Binospec optical spectroscopy for 18 main sequence OB stars. We find that: (a) 12 of our 18 stars show emission lines, despite not being associated with an H II region, suggestive of stellar activity (e.g., mass loss, accretion, binary star interaction), which is consistent with previous predictions of enhanced activity at low metallicity; (b) 6 are Be stars, which are the first to be spectroscopically studied at such low metallicity -- these Be stars have unusual panchromatic SEDs; (c) for stars well-fit by the TLUSTY non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (non-LTE) models, the photometric and spectroscopic values of T_eff and log(g) agree to within ~0.01 dex and ~0.18 dex, respectively, indicating that NUV/optical/NIR imaging can be used to reliably characterize massive (M ~ 8-30 M_sun) main sequence star properties relative to optical spectroscopy; (d) the properties of the most massive stars in H II regions are consistent with constraints from previous nebular emission line studies; and (e) 13 stars with M>8 M_sun are >40 pc from a known star cluster or H II region. Our sample comprises ~50% of all known massive stars at Z < 10% Z_sun with derived stellar parameters, high-quality optical spectra, and panchromatic photometry.