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T. Sivarani, B. Marsteller, T.C. Beers (Michigan State)
Due to their distinctive molecular features, carbon stars can be identified at very large distances from the Sun. Hence, they are potentially ideal candidates for studies of the kinematics and dynamics of the Galactic halo. A large number of faint high-latitude carbon stars have already been discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; e.g., Margon et al. 2002). These authors have argued that the majority of the carbon stars stars are likely to be foreground dwarfs. However, at the medium spectral resolution of SDSS (2.3 Å), giant and dwarf carbon stars appear similar to one another.
We report on a comparison of SDSS spectra and photometry for several hundred carbon stars selected from the third public data release (DR-3) with theoretical models and spectral synthesis. These comparisons enable better constraints on the luminosities and surface gravities of the carbon stars to be obtained, making it possible to reliably separate the giants from the dwarfs. Metallicities and carbon abundances for a portion of these stars will be reported.
This work received partial funding support from grant PHY 02-16783, Physics Frontier Centers/JINA: Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, awarded by the US National Science Foundation.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: thirupathi@pa.msu.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.