Related papers: Building Blue Stragglers with Stellar Collisions
Globular clusters were thought to be simple stellar populations, but recent photometric and spectroscopic evidence suggests that the clusters' early formation history was more complicated. In particular, clusters show star-to-star abundance…
Globular star clusters that formed at the same cosmic time may have evolved rather differently from a dynamical point of view (because that evolution depends on the internal environment) through a variety of processes that tend…
We analyze {\sl Hubble Space Telescope} observations of nine Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters with ages of 1--2 Gyr to search for evolved counterparts of blue straggler stars. Near the red clump regions in the clusters' color--magnitude…
Star cluster formation in giant molecular clouds involves the local collapse of the cloud into small gas-rich subclusters, which can then subsequently collide and merge to build up the final star cluster(s). In this paper, we simulate…
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) surrounding supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are among the densest stellar environments in the universe. In these environments, collisions can shape the stellar mass function and produce exotic stellar…
We present a technique to identify the most probable dynamical formation scenario for an observed binary or triple system containing one or more merger products or, alternatively, to rule out the possibility of a dynamical origin. Our…
Blue supergiants are the brightest stars in their host galaxies and yet their evolutionary status has been a long-standing problem in stellar astrophysics. In this pioneering work, we present a large sample of 59 early B-type supergiants in…
Products of stellar mergers are predicted to be common in stellar populations and can potentially explain stars with peculiar properties. When the merger occurs after the initially more massive star has evolved into the Hertzsprung gap…
Blue stragglers are anomalously massive core hydrogen-burning stars that, according to the theory of single star evolution, should not exist. They are suspected to form in mass-enhancement processes, involving binary evolution or stellar…
The early evolution of dense star clusters is possibly dominated by close interactions between stars, and physical collisions between stars may occur quite frequently. Simulating a stellar collision event can be an intensive numerical task,…
Although the formation of blue straggler stars (BSSs) is routinely attributed to stellar interactions in binary systems, the relative importance of the direct collision and slow(er) stellar coalescence formation channels is still poorly…
We study the effects of stellar collisions, particularly on feeding massive black holes (BHs) and color gradients, in realistic galactic centers. We find that the mass released by stellar collisions is not sufficient to account for the…
(abridged) We use newly available empirical binary fractions for globular clusters to carry out a direct test of the binary evolution hypothesis, and of collisional channels that involve binary stars. More specifically, using the previously…
By using the high resolution spectrograph FLAMES@VLT we performed the first systematic campaign devoted to measure chemical abundances of blue straggler stars (BSSs). These stars, whose existence is not predicted by the canonical stellar…
We report the results of new SPH calculations of parabolic collisions between two main-sequence stars in a globular cluster. Such collisions are directly relevant to the formation of blue stragglers. In particular, we consider parent stars…
Planet-planet collisions are a common outcome of instability in systems of transiting planets close to the star, as well as occurring during in-situ formation of such planets from embryos. Previous N-body studies of instability amongst…
Stellar clusters are thought to be the simplest stellar systems and the closest observational counterparts to theoretical models for single stellar populations. Progress in our understanding of the atmospheres and evolution of massive stars…
Blue straggler stars (BSSs) are exotic objects, which, being the results of processes such as mass transfer, mergers, or collisions, are considered key objects in the study of their host clusters' dynamics. While many studies on…
Blue straggler stars present as secure members in the Galactic open clusters form a major challenge to the conventional picture of evolutionary population synthesis based on the stellar evolution theory of single stars, as illustrated in…
Because the majority of massive stars are born as members of close binary systems, populations of massive main-sequence stars contain stellar mergers and products of binary mass transfer. We simulate populations of massive stars accounting…