Discovery of Blue Hook Stars in the Massive Globular Cluster M54

Details Discovery of Blue Hook Stars in the Massive Globular Cluster M54 Discovery of Blue Hook Stars in the Massive Globular Cluster M54

2003-10-27

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310746v2

Astrophys.J. 603 (2004) 135-138

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

10 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Scientific paper

10.1086/381314

We present BV photometry centered on the globular cluster M54 (NGC 6715). The color-magnitude diagram clearly shows a blue horizontal branch extending anomalously beyond the zero age horizontal branch theoretical models. These kinds of horizontal branch stars (also called ``blue hook'' stars), which go beyond the lower limit of the envelope mass of canonical horizontal branch hot stars, have so far been known to exist in only a few globular clusters: NGC 2808, Omega Centauri (NGC 5139), NGC 6273, and NGC 6388. Those clusters, like M54, are among the most luminous in our Galaxy, indicating a possible correlation between the existence of these types of horizontal branch stars and the total mass of the cluster. A gap in the observed horizontal branch of M54 around T(eff)= 27000 K could be interpreted within the late helium flash theoretical scenario, a possible explanation for the origin of those stars.

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