Related papers: Horizontal Branch Morphology and Mass Loss in Glob…
The strength of the H$\beta$ index has been computed for the integrated spectra of model globular clusters from the evolutionary population synthesis. These models take into account, for the first time, the detailed systematic variation of…
Galactic and extragalactic studies have shown that metal-rich globular clusters (GCs) are approximately three times more likely to host bright low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) than metal-poor GCs. There is no satisfactory explanation for…
We review the most outstanding issues related to the study of the morphology of the Horizontal Branch (HB) in the Color-Magnitude Diagrams of Galactic Globular Clusters and its use as age indicator. It is definitely demonstrated (see also…
We have applied a new method to analyze the horizontal branch (HB) morphology in relation to the distribution of stars near the red giant branch (RGB) tip for the globular clusters M22, M5, M68, M107, M72, M92, M3 and 47 Tuc. This new…
The globular cluster omega Centauri contains the largest known population of very hot horizontal branch (HB) stars. We have used the Hubble Space Telescope to obtain a far-UV/optical color-magnitude diagram of three fields in omega Cen. We…
We have determined the projected rotational velocities of thirteen blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars in the globular cluster M13 via rotational broadening of metal absorption lines. Our sample spans the photometric gap observed in the…
JHK images obtained with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) Adaptive Optics Bonnette (AOB) are used to investigate the near-infrared photometric properties of red giant branch (RGB) and horizontal branch (HB) stars in eight…
We present a detailed analysis of the "second-parameter pair" of globular clusters M3 (NGC 5272) and Palomar 3. Our main results can be summarized as follows: i) The horizontal-branch (HB) morphology of M3 is significantly bluer in its…
Two recent empirical developments in the study of extragalactic globular cluster (GC) populations are the color-magnitude relation of the blue GCs (the "blue tilt") and the nonlinearity of the dependence of optical GC colors on metallicity.…
Horizontal branch (HB) stars in globular clusters offer us a probe of the mass loss mechanisms taking place in red giants. For M3 (NGC 5272), different shapes for the HB mass distribution have been suggested, including Gaussian and sharply…
A large fraction of galactic nuclei is expected to host supermassive black hole binaries (BHB), likely formed during the early phase of galaxies assembly and merging. In this paper, we use a large set of state-of-art numerical models to…
We apply the giant branch slope-[Fe/H] relation derived by Kuchinski et al. [AJ, 109, 1131 (1995)] to a sample of open clusters. We find that the slope of the giant branch in K vs. (J-K) color-magnitude diagrams correlates with [Fe/H] for…
Several recent studies have provided evidence for a `bottom-heavy' stellar initial mass function (IMF) in massive elliptical galaxies. Here we investigate the influence of the IMF shape on the recently discovered color-magnitude relation…
Context. Abundance anomalies have been observed in field sdB stars and in nearly all Horizontal Branch (HB) stars of globular clusters with Teff > 11 000K whatever be the cluster metallicity. Aims. The aim is to determine the abundance…
As stars which have planetary systems evolve along the red giant branch and expand, they interact with the close planets. The planets deposit angular momentum and energy into the red giant stars' envelopes, both of which are likely to…
The determination of stellar metallicity and its gradient in external galaxies is a difficult task, but crucial for the understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. The color of the Red Giant Branch (RGB) can be used to determine…
Recent surveys confirm early results about a deficiency or even absence of CN-strong stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) of globular clusters (GCs), although with quite large cluster-to-cluster variations. In general, this is at odds…
We examine the photometric data for Fornax clusters, focussing our attention on their horizontal branch color distribution and, when available, on the RR Lyr variables fraction and period distribution. Based on our understanding of the HB…
Mass loss remains a major uncertainty in stellar modelling. In low-mass stars, mass loss is most significant on the red giant branch (RGB), and will impact the star's evolutionary path and final stellar remnant. Directly measuring the mass…
We present our recent revision of model constructions for the horizontal-branch (HB) morphology of globular clusters, which suggests the HB morphology is more sensitive to age compared to our earlier models. We also present our high…