Abstract
Field stars and star clusters contain a big part of the galaxy’s history. To understand galaxy formation and evolution we need then to understand the parts of which galaxies are composed. It has commonly been assumed that most stars formed in clusters. However, the connection between these two systems is
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not clear, and the fraction of actual star formation happening in clusters is still uncertain. Through this thesis, we aim to use field stars and star clusters to attack different problems regarding galaxy formation and evolution, named: 1. the cluster formation efficiency and its (co-)relation with environment (i.e. the host galaxy), 2. the star formation rate in the arms and inter-arm regions of spiral galaxies, and 3. the indications of a possible interaction between two galaxies observed through their resolved stellar populations. We performed a systematic and homogeneous study over the galaxies NGC45, NGC1313, NGC4395, NGC5236 and NGC7793, where star clusters and field stars are analyze separately. For this aim, we used Hubble Space Telescope observations in the optical bands U, B, V and I, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Standard photometric procedures are use to study the properties of these two main parts of the galaxies. However, incompleteness constrains our results to ages younger than 100 Myr. Following the synthetic CMD method we recovered the star formation history for the last 100 Myr over the five galaxies. Comparing observed clusters properties with simple stellar population models, we estimate ages and masses of star clusters. We observe that the galaxies NGC5236 and NGC1313 show higher star and cluster formation rates, while NGC45, NGC4395 and NGC7793 show lower values. We found that the actual fraction of star formation happening in clusters presents low values (<10%), contrary to common assumptions, however in agreement with studies in other galaxies. Observations of the surface star formation rate in the arms and inter-arm regions of NGC5236 show high values for the former compared to the later. This result is in good agreement with predictions from the density wave theory. The use of field stars as fingerprints of an interaction process between NGC1313 and a disrupted satellite companion was observed through the fast increase of the star formation hisrtory during the past 100 Myr. The use of field stars and star clusters has shown to be a powerful tool when study the different processes that had shaped the spiral galaxies observed.
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