Helium enhancements in globular cluster stars from Asymptotic Giant Branch star pollution

Details Helium enhancements in globular cluster stars from Asymptotic Giant Branch star pollution Helium enhancements in globular cluster stars from Asymptotic Giant Branch star pollution

2006-05-21

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0605540v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

To appear in Proceedings of The VIII Torino Workshop on Nucleosynthesis in AGB stars: Constraints on AGB Nucleosynthesis from

Scientific paper

Using a chemical evolution model we investigate the intriguing suggestion that there are populations of stars in some globular clusters (e.g. NGC 2808, omega Centauri) with enhanced levels of helium (Y from about 0.28 to 0.40) compared to the majority of the population that presumably have a primordial helium abundance. We assume that a previous generation of massive low-metallicity Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars has polluted the cluster gas via a slow stellar wind. We use two independent sets of AGB yields computed from detailed models to follow the evolution of helium, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen in the cluster gas using a Salpeter initial mass function (IMF) and a number of top-heavy IMFs. In no case were we able to fit the observational constraints, Y > 0.30 and C+N+O approximately constant. Depending on the shape of the IMF and the yields, we either obtained Y approximately greater than 0.30 and large increases in C+N+O or Y < 0.30 and C+N+O approximately constant. These results suggest that either AGB stars alone are not responsible for the large helium enrichment or that any dredge-up from this generation of stars was less than predicted by standard models.

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