Abstract
The age of a southern globular cluster in Milky Way, NGC 1904, was shown to be larger than the typical age of the universe, around 13.7 Gyr, by some photometric studies which assumed all stars as single stars. Besides the uncertainties in photometry, isochrone and fitting technique, the neglect of binary stars possibly distorted the result. We study the effect of binary fraction on the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of NGC 1904, via a new tool for CMD studies, \(\mathit{Powerful}\) \(\mathit{CMD}\), which can determine binary fraction, age, metallicity, distance modulus, color excess, rotating star fraction and star formation history simultaneously. We finally obtain the youngest age of \(14.1\pm2.1~\mbox{Gyr}\) with a zero-age binary fraction of 60 percent for cluster NGC 1904. The result is consistent with the age of the universe. Although our result suggests that binary fraction affects the determination of age slightly, it can improve the fitting to observed CMD, in particular blue stragglers. This suggests us to consider the effect of binaries in the studies of star clusters.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alcaino, G.: Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 26, 353 (1976)
Alcaino, G., Liller, W., Alvarado, F., Wenderoth, E.: Astron. J. 107, 230 (1994)
Brandt, T.D., Huang, C.X.: Astrophys. J. 80, 25 (2015)
Dolphin, A.E.: Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 112, 1383 (2000)
Ferraro, F.R., Messino, M., Fusi Pecci, F., de Palo, M.A., Straniero, O., Chieffi, A.: Astron. J. 118, 1738 (1999)
Gratton, R.G., Ortolani, S.: Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 65, 63 (1986)
Harris, W.E., Hesser, J.E., Atwood, B.: Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 95, 952 (1983)
Heasley, J.N., Janes, K.A., Christian, C.A.: Astron. J. 91, 1108 (1986)
Kinman, T.D.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 119, 171 (1959a)
Kinman, T.D.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 119, 553 (1959b)
Knox, L., Christensen, N., Skordis, C.: Astrophys. J. 563, 95 (2001)
Kravtsov, V., Ipatov, A., Samus, N., Smirnov, O., Alcaino, G., Liller, W., Alvarado, F.: Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 125, 1 (1997)
Lei, Z., Chen, X., Kang, X., Zhang, F., Han, Z.: Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn. 66, 82 (2014)
Li, Z., Han, Z.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 387, 105 (2008)
Li, Z., Han, Z.: Res. Astron. Astrophys. 9, 191 (2009)
Li, Z., Mao, C., Chen, L., et al.: Astrophys. J. 776, 37 (2013)
Li, Z., Mao, C., Chen, L.: Astrophys. J. 802, 44 (2015)
Li, Z., Mao, C., Zhang, L., Zhang, X., Chen, L.: Astrophys. J. Suppl. 225, 7 (2016)
Li, Z., Mao, C., Luo, Q., Fan, Z., Zhao, W., Chen, L., Li, R., Guo, J.: Res. Astron. Astrophys. 17, 71 (2017)
Milone, A.P., Marino, A.F., D’Antona, F., Bedin, L.R., Piotto, G., Jerjen, H., Anderson, J., Dotter, A., Di Criscienzo, M., Lagioia, E.P.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 465, 4363 (2017)
Rubele, S., Kerber, L., Girardi, L.: Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 403, 1156 (2010)
Salpeter, E.E.: Astrophys. J. 121, 161 (1995)
Savage, C., Sugiyama, N., Freese, K.: J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10, 7 (2005)
Schlesinger, B.M.: Astron. J. 80, 1071 (1975)
Stetson, P.B., Harris, W.E.: Astron. J. 82, 954 (1977)
Vandenberg, D.A.: Astrophys. J. Suppl. 51, 29 (1983)
Acknowledgements
We thank the reviewer for useful comments. This work has been supported by the Chinese National Science Foundation (Grant No. 11563002), Joint Research Project of Sino-German Center (GZ1284), and Yunnan Science Foundation (Program No. 2016FB010).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, Z., Deng, Y. Effect of binary fraction on color-magnitude diagram of NGC 1904. Astrophys Space Sci 363, 97 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-018-3326-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-018-3326-x