Masses and luminosities of O- and B-type stars and red supergiants
Massive stars are of interest as progenitors of supernovae, i.e.neutron stars and black holes, which can be sources of gravitationalwaves. Recent population synthesis models can predict neutron star andgravitational wave observations but deal with a fixed supernova rate oran assumed initial mass function for the population of massive stars. Here we investigate those massive stars, which are supernovaprogenitors, i.e. with O- and early B-type stars, and also allsupergiants within 3 kpc. We restrict our sample to those massive starsdetected both in 2MASS and observed by Hipparcos, i.e. only those starswith parallax and precise photometry. To determine the luminositieswe calculated the extinctions from published multi-colour photometry,spectral types, luminosity class, all corrected for multiplicity andrecently revised Hipparcos distances. We use luminosities andtemperatures to estimate the masses and ages of these stars usingdifferent models from different authors. Having estimated theluminosities of all our stars within 3 kpc, in particular for all O- andearly B-type stars, we have determined the median and mean luminositiesfor all spectral types for luminosity classes I, III, and V. Ourluminosity values for supergiants deviate from earlier results: Previouswork generally overestimates distances and luminosities compared to ourdata, this is likely due to Hipparcos parallaxes (generally moreaccurate and larger than previous ground-based data) and the fact thatmany massive stars have recently been resolved into multiples of lowermasses and luminosities. From luminosities and effective temperatureswe derived masses and ages using mass tracks and isochrones fromdifferent authors. From masses and ages we estimated lifetimes andderived a lower limit for the supernova rate of ?20 events/Myraveraged over the next 10 Myr within 600 pc from the sun. These data arethen used to search for areas in the sky with higher likelihood for asupernova or gravitational wave event (like OB associations).
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New Estimates of the Solar-Neighborhood Massive Star Birthrate and the Galactic Supernova Rate
The birthrate of stars of masses >=10 Msolar is estimatedfrom a sample of just over 400 O3-B2 dwarfs within 1.5 kpc of the Sunand the result extrapolated to estimate the Galactic supernova ratecontributed by such stars. The solar-neighborhood Galactic-plane massivestar birthrate is estimated at ~176 stars kpc-3Myr-1. On the basis of a model in which the Galactic stellardensity distribution comprises a ``disk+central hole'' like that of thedust infrared emission (as proposed by Drimmel and Spergel), theGalactic supernova rate is estimated at probably not less than ~1 normore than ~2 per century and the number of O3-B2 dwarfs within the solarcircle at ~200,000.
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Catalog of Galactic OB Stars
An all-sky catalog of Galactic OB stars has been created by extendingthe Case-Hamburg Galactic plane luminous-stars surveys to include 5500additional objects drawn from the literature. This work brings the totalnumber of known or reasonably suspected OB stars to over 16,000.Companion databases of UBVβ photometry and MK classifications forthese objects include nearly 30,000 and 20,000 entries, respectively.
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Interstellar Extinction Along the Camelopardalis and Perseus Border
Interstellar extinction in a ~ 100 sq. degree area at theCamelopardalis and Perseus border is investigated. The study is basedon the results of photoelectric photometry of 455 stars in theseven-color Vilnius photometric system published earlier. The nearest100 stars with Hipparcos parallaxes show that the extinction starts togrow at a distance of 110--150 pc. At a distance of 1 kpc theextinction A_V is within 1.2 and 2.4 mag. At larger distances theextinction determination is affected by the limiting magnitude effect.At distances >1.5 kpc a number of O--B stars with the extinctionsbetween 2 and 4 mag are found.
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Photometry and Classification of Stars Along the Camelopardalis and Perseus Border
Seven-color photometry in the Vilnius system for 309 stars down to 12.5mag in the area along the galactic equator near the Camelopardalis andPerseus border is presented. Photometric spectral and luminosity classesof the stars are determined.
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UBV beta Database for Case-Hamburg Northern and Southern Luminous Stars
A database of photoelectric UBV beta photometry for stars listed in theCase-Hamburg northern and southern Milky Way luminous stars surveys hasbeen compiled from the original research literature. Consisting of over16,000 observations of some 7300 stars from over 500 sources, thisdatabase constitutes the most complete compilation of such photometryavailable for intrinsically luminous stars around the Galactic plane.Over 5000 stars listed in the Case-Hamburg surveys still lackfundamental photometric data.
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An optical spiral arm beyond the Perseus arm
In the second galactic quadrant, optical spiral arm tracers have beencollected in a systematic literature search. A uniform reduction of thedata led to the detection of a distinct structure (probably a spiralarm) beyond the Perseus arm that is separated by a statisticallysignificant gap from the latter.
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A spectrophotometric survey of stars along the Milky Way. IV
In the present paper a catalogue of spectrophotometric quantities,spectral types, monochromatic magnitudes and colour equivalents is givenfor all stars brighter than the magnitude m4400 = 10.5 in aregion of the Milky Way in Perseus. No absorption is found for starscloser than about r = 100 pc. The absorbing clouds are situated atdistances closer than 1 kpc and at about 2.5 kpc in the local arm andthe Perseus arm, respectively. The space between the two arms is freefrom absorption. It is also concluded that the Perseus arm continuesbeyond l = 140 deg, containing not only hydrogen gas but also dust to atleast l = 150 deg), while the content of OB stars decreases abruptly atl = 140 deg.
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The space distribution and kinematics of supergiants
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1970AJ.....75..602H&db_key=AST
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Observed Variations in the Law of Interstellar Reddening.
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1962ApJ...136..100W&db_key=AST
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Interstellar Polarization of 405 Stars.
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1954ApJ...120..454H&db_key=AST
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