Related papers: On a new parameter to estimate the helium content …
The Horizontal Branch (HB) second parameter of Globular Clusters (GCs) is a major open issue in stellar evolution. Large photometric and spectroscopic databases allow a re-examination of this issue. We derive median and extreme (90% of the…
Despite the fact that the initial helium abundance is an essential ingredient in modelling solar-type stars, its abundance in these stars remains a poorly constrained observational property. This is because the effective temperature in…
We suggest to use the shape of the Red Giant Branch (RGB) Bump in metal-rich globular clusters as a diagnostic of partial mixing processes between the base of the convective envelope and the H-burning shell. The Bump located along the…
It has been known for a long time that some red giants in globular clusters exhibit large star-to-star variations in the abundances of light elements that are not exhibited by field giants. This fact can be taken as evidence that the extra…
We present the results of a joint investigation aimed at constraining the primordial He content ($Y_P$) on the basis of both the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropy and two stellar observables, namely the tip of the Red Giant…
We estimate the initial He content in about 30% of the Galactic globular clusters (GGCs) from new star counts we have performed on the recently published HST snapshot database of Colour Magnitude Diagrams (Piotto et al. 2002). More in…
We report the detection and analysis of the red giant branch luminosity function bump in a sample of isolated dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. We have designed a new analysis approach comparing the observed color-magnitude diagrams with…
We have calculated the evolution of low metallicity red giant stars under the assumption of deep mixing between the convective envelope and the hydrogen burning shell. We find that the extent of the observed abundance anomalies, and in…
We show that macroscopic dark matter (DM) impacts on the degenerate helium cores of red-giant branch (RGB) stars can ignite helium fusion via DM-baryon elastic scattering. The onset of helium burning leads to a characteristic drop in…
Precise studies on the Galactic bulge, globular cluster, Galactic halo and Galactic thick disk require stellar models with alpha enhancement and various values of helium content. These models are also important for extra-Galactic population…
A catalog including a set of the most recent Color Magnitude Diagrams (CMDs) is presented for a sample of 61 Galactic Globular Clusters (GGCs). We used this data-base to perform an homogeneous systematic analysis of the evolved sequences…
[Abbreviated] We have investigated the color-magnitude diagram of Omega Centauri and find that the blue main sequence (bMS) can be reproduced only by models that have a of helium abundance in the range Y=0.35-$0.40. To explain the faint…
We present the evolution of low mass and low metallicity RGB models computed under the assumption of deep mixing between the convective envelope and the hydrogen burning shell. We discuss the helium enrichment of the envelope which is…
This study investigates the variability of the theoretical correction factor, $f_{\Delta \nu}$, used in red giant branch (RGB) scaling relations, arising from different assumptions in stellar model computations. Adopting a commonly used…
This paper investigates the effect of microscopic diffusion of helium and heavy elements on the location of the Red Giant Branch Luminosity Function Bump in Population II stellar models. To this aim updated evolutionary models taking into…
We derive the optical luminosity, colors, and ratios of the blue and red helium burning (HeB) stellar populations from archival Hubble Space Telescope observations of nineteen starburst dwarf galaxies and compare them with theoretical…
Recent studies suggest that the helium content of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters (GCs) is not uniform. The range of helium varies from cluster to cluster with more massive GCs having, preferentially, large helium spread.…
The helium abundance of stars is a strong driver of evolutionary timescales, however it is difficult to measure in cool stars. We conduct an asteroseismic analysis of NGC 6791, an old, metal rich open cluster that previous studies have…
A direct measure of the helium abundances from the near-infrared transition of He I at 1.08 micron is obtained for two nearly identical red giant stars in the globular cluster Omega Centauri. One star exhibits the He I line; the line is…
We analysed red giant branch stars in 16 Galactic globular clusters, computing their atmospheric parameters both from the photometry and from excitation and ionisation balances. The spectroscopic parameters are lower than the photometric…