Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Galaxy Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-01-09
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Galaxy Astrophysics
accepted for MNRAS Letters
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1745-3933.2008.00609.x
Blue hook (BHk) stars are a rare class of horizontal branch stars that so far have been found in only very few Galactic globular clusters (GCs). The dominant mechanism for producing these objects is currently still unclear. In order to test if the presence of BHk populations in a given GC is linked to specific physical or structural cluster properties, we have constructed a parent sample of GCs for which existing data is sufficient to establish the presence or absence of BHk populations with confidence. We then compare the properties of those clusters in our parent sample that do contain a BHk population to those that do not. We find that there is only one compelling difference between BHk and non-BHk clusters: all known BHk clusters are unusually massive. However, we also find that the BHk clusters are consistent with being uniformly distributed within the cumulative mass distribution of the parent sample. Thus, while it is attractive to suggest there is is a lower mass cut-off for clusters capable of forming BHk stars, the data do not require this. Instead, the apparent preference for massive clusters could still be a purely statistical effect: intrinsically rare objects can only be found by searching a sufficiently large number of stars.
Dieball Andrea
Hannikainen Diana Carina
Knigge Christian
Long Knox S.
Maccarone Thomas J.
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