Hot HB stars in globular clusters - Physical parameters and consequences for theory. VI. The second parameter pair M 3 and M 13

A "jump" in the BHB distribution in the V, u-y CMD was recently detected in the GC M13. It is morphologically best characterized as a discontinuity in u, u-y, with stars in the range 11,500<Teff(K)<20,000 deviating systematically from (in the sense of appearing brighter and/or hotter than) canonical ZAHBs. We present u, y photometry of 14 GCs obtained with 3 different telescopes (Danish, NOT, HST) and demonstrate that the u-jump is present in every GC whose HB extends beyond ...

We report new, as yet unpublished HST/WFPC2 V, I photometry of 9 globular clusters in M31. These are part of a total sample of 19 clusters on M31 with well observed CMDs from HST. The clusters have the full range of horizontal branch morphologies from blue HB to red clump, but none are found with an extreme (blue only) horizontal branch. Plots of HB type vs [Fe/H] are similar to those of Galactic clusters, including a hint of second parameter clusters. Sixteen halo fields adj...

(abridged) The metal-rich bulge globular cluster NGC6388 shows a distinct blue horizontal-branch tail with a strong upward tilt in its colour-magnitude diagram. Several noncanonical scenarios have been proposed to explain these puzzling observations. In order to test the predictions of these scenarios, we have obtained medium resolution spectra to determine the atmospheric parameters of a sample of the blue HB stars in NGC 6388. Using the medium resolution spectra, we determi...

In this paper, we present a detailed high-resolution spectroscopic study of post main sequence stars in the Globular Cluster M68. Our sample, which covers a range of 4000 K in $T_{eff}$, and 3.5 dex in $log(g)$, is comprised of members from the red giant, red horizontal, and blue horizontal branch, making this the first high-resolution globular cluster study covering such a large evolutionary and parameter space. Initially, atmospheric parameters were determined using photome...

Helium is a pivotal element in understanding multiple main sequences and extended horizontal branches observed in some globular clusters. Here we present a spectroscopic study of helium in the nearby globular cluster M4. We have obtained spectra of the chromospheric He I 10830 A line in 16 red horizontal branch, red giant branch, and asymptotic giant branch stars. Clear He I absorption or emission is present in most of the stars. Effective temperature is the principal paramet...

We present the evolution of low mass and low metallicity RGB models computed under the assumption of deep mixing between the convective envelope and the hydrogen burning shell. We discuss the helium enrichment of the envelope which is necessary or allowed to achieve or to keep consistency with the observations, and conclude on the possible connection between chemical anomalies in red giants and the horizontal branch morphology in globular clusters.

We study the ``jump'' in the blue horizontal--branch (BHB) distribution first detected by Grundahl et al. (1998) in the Galactic globular cluster (GC) M13. On the basis of Stromgren photometry for a sample of fourteen GC's we show that: 1) The jump is best characterized as a systematic shift, on a (u, u-y) color-magnitude diagram, from canonical zero-age HB (ZAHB) models, in the sense that the stars appear brighter and/or hotter than the models; 2) the jump is a ubiquitous ph...

AIMS: The cluster of hot stars observed in orbit around the central black hole of M31 has been interpreted as a 200 Myr starburst. The formation of a population of young stars in close proximity to a massive black hole presents a difficult challenge to star formation theory. We point out that in a high stellar density environment, the course of stellar evolution is modified by frequent collisions and mergers. METHODS: Blue stragglers, which are the results of mergers in globu...

Horizontal branch (HB) stars in globular clusters offer us a probe of the mass loss mechanisms taking place in red giants. For M3 (NGC 5272), different shapes for the HB mass distribution have been suggested, including Gaussian and sharply bimodal alternatives. Here we study the mass distribution of HB stars in M3 by comparing evolutionary tracks and photometric observations. Our approach is thus of a semi-empirical nature, describing as it does the mass distribution that is ...

Most Globular Clusters (GC) show chemical inhomogeneities in the composition of their stars, apparently due to a second stellar generation (SG) in which the forming gas is enriched by hot-CNO cycled material processed in stars belonging to a first stellar generation (FG). We propose to use the horizontal branch (HB) to infer which is today the relative number fraction of ''normal" and anomalous stars in clusters. We assume that the anomalies also include enhanced helium abund...