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.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 785, Issue 1, article id. 21, 17 pp. (2014).
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4
2014
Journal
Citations
106
Refereed citations
98
Description
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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Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
The general aim of the project is to research the structure, evolutionary history and formation of galaxies through the study of their resolved stellar populations, both from photometry and spectroscopy. The group research concentrates in the most nearby objects, namely the Local Group galaxies including the Milky Way and M33 under the hypothesis
Martín
López Corredoira