Blue Stragglers in Low-Luminosity Star Clusters

Abstract

We examine the blue straggler populations of 13 low-luminosity (M_V_t >~ -6) globular clusters and 2 old open clusters. These clusters test blue straggler formation in environments intermediate between higher luminosity (and usually higher density) clusters and the Galactic field. The anti-correlation between the relative frequency of blue stragglers (F_BSS = N_BSS / N_HB) and cluster luminosity continues to the lowest luminosity clusters, which have frequencies meeting or exceeding that of field stars. In addition we find that the anti-correlation between straggler frequency and central density disappears for clusters with density less than about 300 L_V,sun pc^-3, although this appears to be an artifact of the correlation between cluster luminosity and central density. We argue on observational (wide, eccentric binaries containing blue stragglers in M67, and the existence of very bright stragglers in most of the clusters in our sample) and theoretical grounds that stellar collisions still produce a significant fraction of the blue stragglers in low luminosity star clusters due to the long-term survival of wide binaries.

13 pages, 3 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters

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Cited by in corpus (19)

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• Implications for the Formation of Blue Straggler Stars from HST Ultraviolet Observations of NGC 188
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• Evolution of stellar collision products in open clusters. II. A grid of low-mass collisions
• Search and analysis of blue straggler stars in open clusters
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• On the Anomalous Balmer Line Strengths in Globular Clusters
• The central Blue Straggler population in four outer-halo globular clusters
• Photometry of the Globular Cluster NGC 5466: Red Giants and Blue Stragglers
• The MODEST questions: challenges and future directions in stellar cluster research
• Astrophysics in 2006
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• VI Photometry of Globular Clusters NGC6293 and NGC6541: The Formation of the Metal-Poor Inner Halo Globular Clusters
• An analysis of the blue straggler population in the Sgr dSph globular cluster Arp 2