Empirical Globular Cluster Ridgeline Construction on Gaia Data

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new empirical method and software for constructing globular cluster ridgelines from Gaia data, enabling better comparison with models while preserving key physical properties of the clusters.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel empirical approach and code for compressing globular cluster CMDs into ridgelines that retain physical and morphological information.

Findings

Effective preservation of cluster morphology

Enhanced comparison with isochrone models

Applicable to Gaia data for globular clusters

Abstract

We present a new method and a corresponding code to compress the color magnitude diagram of a globular cluster into a representative curve, called a ridgeline, that can be more readily compared to isochrone models, among other applications. This compression method preserves the physical properties of the cluster, including the morphology of the CMD.