To use or not to use model stellar

spectra to study integrated stellar

populations?
XVII Latin American Regional IAU Meeting
30th Nov 2023

Paula Coelho (pcoelho@usp.br)

Universidade de São Paulo
 let’s talk about
STELLAR POPULATIONS
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• Walter Baade observed CMDs in
M31, M32 and NGC205 and
found similarities with Galactic
stellar systems.
• bringing together stellar evolution,
galactic and extra-galactic studies
• “… Baade’s diagram of the two
stellar populations is the second
most important astronomical
diagram of this century. It
opened up the whole elds of
stellar evolution and galactic
evolution, as Hubble’s velocity-
distance diagram opened up the
study of the whole universe.” Fig 1 in Baade (1944): Shaded areas: ordinary H-R diagrams
Donald E. Osterbrock, (type I). Hatched areas: H-R diagrams of stars in globular
1995IAUS..164…21O. clusters (type II). “The resolution of M32, NGC205 and the
central region of the Andromeda Nebula”
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THE INTEGRATED LIGHT: THE NEED FOR STELLAR POPULATION MODELS
• Even though most of the content of the universe is not visible (dark
matter and dark energy, in the current cosmological paradigm)

• The vast majority of what we observe is light coming from stars, gas
and dust. From this light, we have to infer nearly everything else.
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• Beatrice Tinsley: the rst to do
evolutionary population
synthesis seriously
• bringing together stellar and
chemical evolution to study
galaxies
• Tinsley (1968); Tinsley & Gunn
(1976); Tinsley (1978, 1979,
1980)
• What we use today (BC03,
Vazdekis+, Maraston+) are
updates on Tinsley’s ideas
Tinsley (1968), “Evolution of the Stars and Gas in Galaxies”
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TODAY: (MINIMAL) INGREDIENTS OF
A STELLAR POPULATION MODEL

Fig 1 in Conroy (2013)

(adapted)
TODAY: (MINIMAL) INGREDIENTS OF
A STELLAR POPULATION MODEL

“A model cannot be
better than its
Fig 1 in Conroy (2013)
ingredients” G. Bruzual
(adapted)
 let’s talk about
SPECTRAL STELLAR LIBRARIES
 SPECTRAL STELLAR LIBRARIES
• a homogeneous compilation
of stellar spectra (or uxes, or
indices)
• each spectrum is tagged (i.e.
characterized), e.g. in terms of
effective temperature, surface
gravities, abundances
• there are over a hundred
libraries available in literature
(no kidding)
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• also used in automatic
determinations of stellar
parameters in surveys (e.g.
Dias+15), studies of exoplanets
via RV (e.g. Spring+22), and
photometric calibration in
surveys (Almeida-
Fernandes+22).
• can be empirical (based on
observations) or theoretical
(based on atmosphere models
and radiative transfer codes)
To use or not to use model stellar
spectra to study integrated stellar
populations?
To use or not to use model stellar
spectra to study integrated stellar
populations?

Yes! To use!
To use or not to use model stellar
spectra to study integrated stellar
populations?

Yes! To use!
Always?
To use or not to use model stellar
spectra to study integrated stellar
populations?

Yes! To use!
Always?
Well… no
To use or not to use model stellar
spectra to study integrated stellar
populations?

Yes! To use!
Always?
Well… no
Then when?
 Empirical libraries
★ The stars are real...
★ coverage of the parameter space
in Teff, log g, metallicity and
chemical pattern is limited
e.g. ELODIE, IRTF, MILES, Pickles,
Smarty (Michele Coelho, this
conference), Stelib, XSL…
and poster 589 (L. Martins)!
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Theoretical libraries
★ known atmospheric parameters
★ nearly in nite S/N
★ large coverage in wavelength
★ high-resolution
★ limited by the approximations
and (in)accuracies of the models
e.g. AMES, BT-Settl, Coelho, Kurucz,
Levenhagen, Martins, Munari,
Pacheco, Phoenix, TLUSTY, TMAP
 Sparse vs optimal HR coverage
(Coelho 14)
★ coverage of the parameter space
in Teff, log g, metallicity and
chemical pattern is limited
 Real vs. synthetic stellar spectra
(Coelho ’14)

Models Mean residual

Observations R.M.S

Residual ux

★ limited by the approximations

and (in)accuracies of the models
Wavelength Wavelength
fl
 The coverage effect
How does the sparse coverage of the HR
affect our SP predictions?

The synthetic effect

How do the uncertainties in model spectra
affect our SP predictions?
HOW TO ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS?
1. empirical MILES
2. a synthetic counterpart to
Parsec tracks
MILES coverage (SynCoMiL)
(Bressan+12; Chen+15 )
3. synthetic Coelho (2014)

Chabrier (2003)

Ages from 30 Myrs to 15 Gyrs

Computed using code GALAXEV 5 metallicities (Z = 0.0002,
(BC03, CB07, Coelho+07) 0.004, 0.008, 0.017, 0.030)
 • Compare SSP models
Synthetic effect: How do the computed with an
uncertainties in the theoretical empirical (MILES) vs. a
libraries affect our SP models? synthetic library, at xed HR
coverage (SynCoMil)

• Compare models
computed with a sparse
Coverage effect: How does
synthetic lib (SynCoMil) vs.
the sparse coverage of
a lib with optimal coverage
empirical libraries affect our
of the Kiel diagram
SP models?
(Coelho14).
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 RESULTS
model-model comparisons
 Synthetic effect: compare empirical vs
theoretical lib at xed HR coverage
Effect on broad-band colours Coverage effect: compare two theoretical
Δcolour: the difference in colour between 2 sets of models libs at different HR coverage

Density plots showing the

distributions of colour
differences for the different
combinations of SDSS-based
colours (in rows) and the model
effects (in columns). Colours
indicate the metallicities Z, as
indicated in the label.

Coelho, Bruzual & Charlot (2020)

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 message to take home #1

If your study is based on photometric data,

prefer SP models based on synthetic libraries.
 Synthetic effect: compare empirical vs
theoretical lib at xed HR
Effect on spectral indices Coverage effect: compare two theoretical
Δidx: the difference in index measurement between 2 sets of models libs at different HR coverage

Coverage effect
dominates in 12 (40%)
of the studied indices.

Synthetic effect
dominates in 18
(60%).
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 message to take home #2

If your study is based on spectra, tread carefully…

the effects vary with small spectral windows
 so far so good for model-model comparisons…

what happens when looking at actual

stellar systems?
 Synthetic effect: compare empirical vs
theoretical lib at xed HR
WHEN INTERPRETING GALAXIES? Coverage effect: compare two theoretical
Fitting a sample of nearly 1000 nearby disk galaxies in SDSS libs at different HR coverage

SYNTHETIC EFFECT COVERAGE EFFECT

MILES-based
empirical lib

model lib
Credit: Coelho et al. (2020)
Data from Coelho & Gadotti (2011)
Fitting code by Cid Fernandes et al. (2005) model lib at sparse coverage
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 message to take home #3

If you need both the best age and the best

metallicity, good luck. 😒
 WHAT ABOUT STELLAR CLUSTERS?
We (kind of) know the ground truth…

Credit: Goncalves, Coelho et al. (2020) Code: Cid Fernandes et al. (2005)
Data: Usher et al. (2017) SSP:Vazdekis et al. (2015)
Credit: Goncalves, Coelho et al. (2020)

Effect known in literature, interpreted

as the presence of blue HB not taken
into account by the SPP models.
 Credit: Goncalves, Coelho et al. (2020)

The coverage effect accounts for up to 25%

of the “blue-light excess” in integrated light
of metal-poor star clusters

preliminary

Credit: Asad, Coelho et al. (in prep.)

Data: Usher et al. (2017)
Code: Cid Fernandes et al. (2005)
SSP: Coelho et al. (2020)
 [Fe/H]: light versus literature
preliminary

The synthetic effect on average improves results for metallicities of stellar clusters
 CONCLUSIONS
“All models are wrong, but some are useful” George Box
The coverage effect:
• is responsible for the larger
deviations in the predicted
colours
• results in lower galaxy ages
• at low metallicities, partially
mimics the presence of
blue HB stars
The synthetic effect:
• in galaxies, the derived
[Fe/H] is lower by an
average of ∼0.13 dex
• in stellar clusters, model
stars on average
improve the comparison
with literature values
(Δ[Fe/H] = 0.02 vs 0.20)
 THANKS!
OBRIGADA
GRACIAS
Questions?