Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:03:48.511Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Machine-learning approaches to select Wolf-Rayet candidates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2017

A. P. Marston
Affiliation:
ESA, STScI, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA email: [email protected]
G. Morello
Affiliation:
IPAC, Caltech, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, UCL, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT, UK
P. Morris
Affiliation:
IPAC, Caltech, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
S. Van Dyk
Affiliation:
IPAC, Caltech, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
J. Mauerhan
Affiliation:
Dept. of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The WR stellar population can be distinguished, at least partially, from other stellar populations by broad-band IR colour selection. We present the use of a machine learning classifier to quantitatively improve the selection of Galactic Wolf-Rayet (WR) candidates. These methods are used to separate the other stellar populations which have similar IR colours. We show the results of the classifications obtained by using the 2MASS J, H and K photometric bands, and the Spitzer/IRAC bands at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0μm. The k-Nearest Neighbour method has been used to select Galactic WR candidates for observational follow-up. A few candidates have been spectroscopically observed. Preliminary observations suggest that a detection rate of 50% can easily be achieved.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2017 

References

Altman, N. S., 1992, The American Statistician, 46, 175 Google Scholar
Hadfield, L. J., Van Dyk, S. D., Morris, P. W., Smith, J. D., Marston, A. P., & Peterson, D. E., 2007, MNRAS, 376, 248 Google Scholar
Mauerhan, J. C., Van Dyk, S. D., & Morris, P. W., 2011, Astronomical Journal, 142, 40 Google Scholar
Morello, G., Morris, P. W., Van Dyk, S. D., Marston, A. P., & Mauerhan, J. C. 2017, MNRAS, in reviewGoogle Scholar