The dynamical state of the globular clusters Rup 106 and IC 4499

Abstract

The dynamical evolution of globular clusters is theoretically described by a series of well known events typical of N-body systems. Still, the identification of observational signatures able to empirically describe the stage of dynamical evolution of a stellar system of the density typical of a globular cluster, represents a challenge. In this paper we study the dynamical age of the globular clusters Rup 106 and IC 4499. To this aim, we study the radial distribution of the Blue Straggler Stars via the A+ parameter and of the slope of the Main Sequence Mass Function. Both tracers show that Rup 106 and IC 4499 are dynamically young clusters where dynamical friction has just started to segregate massive stars towards the clusters' centre. In fact, we observe that the Blue Straggler stars are more centrally concentrated in both clusters than the reference population. On the same line, we find that in both cases the slope of the mass function significantly decreases as a function of the cluster-centric distances. This result provides additional support for the use of the the radial distribution of the blue stragglers as a powerful observationally convenient indicator of the cluster dynamical age.

Accepted for publication on A&A

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Empirical measurement of the dynamical ages of three globular clusters and some considerations on the use of the dynamical clock
• The dynamical age of the LMC globular cluster NGC 1835 using the "dynamical clock"
• Revealing the stellar population of the ultra-obscured Galactic globular cluster Glimpse-C02