http://arxiv.org/abs/1402.4117
We present a tally of Milky Way late-type dwarf stars in 68 WFC3 pure-parallel fields (227 arcmin^2) from the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) survey for high-redshift galaxies. Using spectroscopically identified M-dwarfs in two public surveys, the CANDELS and the ERS mosaics, we identify a morphological selection criterion using the half-light radius (r50), a near-infrared J-H, G-J color region where M-dwarfs are found, and a V-J relation with M-dwarf subtype. We apply this morphological selection of stellar objects, color-color selection of M-dwarfs and optical-near-infrared color subtyping to compile a catalog of 274 M-dwarfs belonging to the disk of the Milky Way with a limiting magnitude of m_F125W < 24.
Based on the M-dwarfs statistics, we conclude that (a) the previously identified North/South discrepancy in M-dwarf numbers persists in our sample; there are more M-dwarfs in the Northern fields on average than in Southern ones, (b) the Milky Way’s single disk scale-height for M-dwarfs is 0.3-4 kpc, depending on sub-type, (c) the scale-height depends on M-dwarf subtype with early type (M0-4) high scale-height (z0=3-4 kpc) and later types M5 and above in the thin disk (z0=0.3-0.5 kpc), (d) a second component is visible in the vertical distribution, with a different, much higher scale-height in the Southern Fields compared to the Northern ones. We report the M-dwarf component of the Sagittarius stream in one of our fields with 11 confirmed M-dwarfs, 7 of which are at the stream’s distance.
The dwarf scale-height and the relative low incidence in our fields of L- and T-dwarfs in these fields makes it unlikely that these stars will be interlopers in great numbers in color-selected samples go high-redshift galaxies. The relative ubiquity of M-dwarfs however will make them ideal tracers of Galactic Halo substructure with EUCLID and reference stars for JWST observations.
B. Holwerda, M. Trenti, W. Clarkson, et. al.
Tue, 18 Feb 14
9/72
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