Photometric analysis yields metallicity distributions for 3917 stars across 12 faint Milky Way satellites, showing average [Fe/H] ~ -2.3 dex, 170 EMP candidates, and no gradients in ultra-faint systems.
R., Pace, A
3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.
abstract
Crater II (CraII), a large and low-density dwarf spheroidal galaxy, has unusual observed properties that are difficult to reproduce in cold dark matter simulations. Ongoing tidal disruption may help explain the discrepancies, as evidenced by the recent discovery of tidal tails. Here we present metallicity-sensitive narrowband photometry of the Ca II H and K lines from the Dark Energy Camera, covering $128$ deg$^2$ across the center and identified tidal tails of CraII as part of the Mapping the Ancient Galaxy in CaHK (MAGIC) survey. Our combined photometric metallicity, color-magnitude, proper motion, and parallax selections identify 162 CraII candidates. Of these, 37 candidates are located in the tidal tails which extend at least $7^\circ$ ($\sim 95$ kpc) from the center of CraII, suggesting it has lost $\gtrsim 25$% of its initial stellar mass. We confirm low contamination rates with dedicated control fields and highlight the extremely low surface brightness stellar features that can be uncovered with CaHK data, as faint as $\sim 36$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$. We also make the first detection of a metallicity gradient ($-0.34\pm0.17~{\rm dex}~{\rm deg}^{-1}$) in the center of the galaxy and infer a stream width of $w\sim 0.8^\circ$, roughly 50% larger than the CraII half-light radius. The detection of candidates in the most distant CraII pointings from its center implies that the tidal tails extend beyond our footprint. We compare the CraII stream to $N$-body models with "cored" and "cuspy" dark matter halo progenitors, determining that CraII's density profile is still ambiguous and warrants further modeling.
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astro-ph.GA 3years
2026 3roles
method 1polarities
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The MAGIC survey provides photometric metallicities for RGB stars over ~3000 deg² using CaHK narrow-band imaging plus DELVE g,r,i data, recovering 13/14 known ultra-faint dwarfs and confirming a distant Reticulum II member.
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The DECam MAGIC Survey $-$ Mapping the Ancient Galaxy in CaHK: Overview and Summary of Early Science
The MAGIC survey provides photometric metallicities for RGB stars over ~3000 deg² using CaHK narrow-band imaging plus DELVE g,r,i data, recovering 13/14 known ultra-faint dwarfs and confirming a distant Reticulum II member.