Blue Stragglers and Friends: Initial Evolutionary Pathways in Close Low-Mass Binaries: Literature Review
arXiv:2509.20531 · doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-071221-054402
Abstract
The scope of this literature review is observations of the products of first-stage evolution for binaries having components with M < 2 . A taxonomy for these products comprises dwarfs ("blue stragglers"), giants ("yellow stragglers"), subdwarf B stars, and giant-like stars ("sub-subgiants" and "red stragglers"). This literature review is organized according to this taxonomy within three distinct environments: open star clusters, globular star clusters, and the Galactic field. This literature review is the Supplemental Material for Blue Stragglers and Friends: Initial Evolutionary Pathways in Close Low-Mass Binaries (Mathieu & Pols, 2025, ARAA, 63:467-512, doi: www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-astro-071221-054402). It is intended to support and expand on Section 3 of the main text of this Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, where an integrated perspective on the common and contrasting astrophysical properties of these binary evolution products is provided. Figures used in the main text to highlight key observational results are referenced in this literature review. The closing date of this review is January 17, 2025, with some citations subsequently updated.
42 pages, 9 figures, Open Access to main article available at https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-astro-071221-054402
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