Bibcode
Milone, A. P.; Marino, A. F.; Dotter, A.; Norris, J. E.; Jerjen, H.; Piotto, G.; Cassisi, S.; Bedin, L. R.; Recio Blanco, A.; Sarajedini, A.; Asplund, M.; Monelli, M.; Aparicio, A.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 785, Issue 1, article id. 21, 17 pp. (2014).
Fecha de publicación:
4
2014
Revista
Número de citas
106
Número de citas referidas
98
Descripción
The horizontal-branch (HB) morphology of globular clusters (GCs) is
mainly determined by metallicity. However, the fact that GCs with almost
the same metallicity exhibit different HB morphologies demonstrates that
at least one more parameter is needed to explain the HB morphology. It
has been suggested that one of these should be a global parameter that
varies from GC to GC and the other a nonglobal parameter that varies
within the GC. In this study we provide empirical evidence corroborating
this idea. We used the photometric catalogs obtained with the Advanced
Camera for Surveys of the Hubble Space Telescope and analyze the
color-magnitude diagrams of 74 GCs. The HB morphology of our sample of
GCs has been investigated on the basis of the two new parameters L1 and
L2 that measure the distance between the red giant branch and the
coolest part of the HB and the color extension of the HB, respectively.
We find that L1 correlates with both metallicity and age, whereas L2
most strongly correlates with the mass of the hosting GC. The range of
helium abundance among the stars in a GC, characterized by ΔY and
associated with the presence of multiple stellar populations, has been
estimated in a few GCs to date. In these GCs we find a close
relationship among ΔY, GC mass, and L2. We conclude that age and
metallicity are the main global parameters, while the range of helium
abundance within a GC is the main nonglobal parameter defining the HB
morphology of Galactic GCs.
Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained
at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA,
Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.
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