A Photometric Study of the Outer Halo Globular Cluster NGC 5824

Abstract

Multi-wavelength CCD photometry over 21 years has been used to produce deep color-magnitude diagrams together with light curves for the variables in the Galactic globular cluster NGC 5824. Twenty-one new cluster RR Lyrae stars are identified, bringing the total to 47, of which 42 have reliable periods determined for the first time. The color-magnitude diagram is matched using BaSTI isochrones with age of $13$~Gyr. and reddening is found to be $E(B-V)=0.15\pm 0.02$; using the period-Wesenheit relation in two colors the distance modulus is $(m-M{)}_0=17.45\pm 0.07$ corresponding to a distance of 30.9 Kpc. The observations show no signs of populations that are significantly younger than the $13$~Gyr stars. The width of the red giant branch does not allow for a spread in [Fe/H] greater than $\sigma =0.05$ dex, and there is no photometric evidence for widened or parallel sequences. The $V,c_{UBI}$ pseudo-color magnitude diagram shows a bifurcation of the red giant branch that by analogy with other clusters is interpreted as being due to differing spectral signatures of the first (75\%) and second (25\%) generations of stars whose age difference is close enough that main sequence turnoffs in the color-magnitude diagram are unresolved. The cluster main sequence is visible against the background out to a radial distance of $\sim 17$ arcmin. We conclude that NGC 5824 appears to be a classical Oosterhoff Type II globular cluster, without overt signs of being a remnant of a now-disrupted dwarf galaxy.

26 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Accurate distances to Galactic globular clusters through a combination of Gaia EDR3, HST and literature data
• The ISLAnds Project III: Variable Stars in Six Andromeda Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• New LZ and PW(Z) relations of RR Lyrae stars calibrated with Gaia EDR3 parallaxes