Related papers: Helium self--enrichment and the second parameter p…
The morphology of the Horizontal Branch (HB) in Globular Clusters (GC) is among the early evidences that they contain multiple populations of stars. Indeed, the location of each star along the HB depends both on its initial helium content…
(Abridged) The color and luminosity distribution of horizontal branch (HB) stars in globular clusters are sensitive probes of their original helium abundances. However, recent analyses based on visual and near-ultraviolet (UV) CMDs have…
We present abundance ratios for 23 elements with respect to Fe in a sample of stars with a wide range in luminosity, from luminous giants to stars near the turnoff, in the globular cluster M71. The analyzed spectra, obtained with HIRES at…
High resolution spectra of 123 red giant stars in the globular cluster M13 and 64 red giant stars in M92 were obtained with Hectochelle at the MMT telescope. Emission and line asymmetries in Halpha, and Ca K are identified, characterizing…
The "second-parameter effect" is characterized by the existence of globular clusters (GCs) with similar metallicity [Fe/H] (the "first parameter") but different horizontal-branch (HB) morphologies. One of the primary second-parameter…
We perform a comparative study of the ex--situ second--parameter pair globular clusters (GCs) M30 and M92, having similar metallicities but different horizontal branch morphologies. We obtain the similar mean primordial carbon abundances…
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…
Up-to-date isochrones, zero-age horizontal branch (ZAHB) loci, and evolutionary tracks for core He-burning stars are applied to the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of M3, M15, and M92, focusing in particular on their RR Lyrae populations.…
Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations have found that the horizontal branches (HB's) in the metal-rich globular clusters NGC 6388 and NGC 6441 slope upward with decreasing B-V. Such a slope is not predicted by canonical HB models and…
It is now widely accepted that globular cluster red giant branch stars owe their strange abundance patterns to a combination of pollution from progenitor stars and in situ extra mixing. In this hybrid theory a first generation of stars…
Although not predicted by standard stellar evolution, the surface abundance of light elements, such as lithium (Li), carbon, and nitrogen, changes during the red giant branch (RGB) as a result of extra-mixing. This is associated usually…
The double main sequence identified in the globular cluster Omega Centauri has been interpreted using isochrones to indicate a large variation in the abundance of helium. If true, a helium enhancement carries strong implications for the…
We study the globular clusters M3 and Palomar 3 as a "second parameter (2ndP) pair," showing that: i) M3 has a surprisingly strong *internal* 2ndP; ii) The dispersion in mass on the Pal 3 horizontal branch (HB) is intrinsically very small,…
A recent survey toward the Milky Way bulge has discovered two sequences of RR Lyrae stars on the period-amplitude diagram with a maximum period-shift of {\Delta}log P = 0.015 between the two populations. Here we show, from our synthetic…
We present new sets of nonlinear, time-dependent convective hydrodynamical models of RR Lyrae stars assuming two metal (Z=0.0005, Z=0.001) and three helium abundances (Y=0.24, 0.30, 0.38). For each chemical composition we constructed a grid…
Recent HST observations of the metal-rich bulge clusters NGC 6388 and NGC 6441 by Rich et al. (1997) have found that the horizontal branches (HBs) in these clusters slope upward with decreasing B-V. Such an upward slope in the HB morphology…
We present a new set of horizontal-branch (HB) models computed with the MESA stellar evolution code. The models adopt $\alpha$-enhanced \cite{ags09} metals mixtures and include the gravitational settling of He. They are used in our HB…
We report new HST/WFPC2 photometry for 10 globular clusters (GC) in M31 observed in F5555W(V) and F814W(I). Additionally we have reanalyzed HST archival data of comparable quality for 2 more GCs. Extraordinary care is taken to account for…
The method developed by Raffelt (1990a,b,c) to estimate a possible increase in the standard values of the helium-core mass at the tip of the red giant branch, $\Mc$, from properties of the color-magnitude diagrams of Galactic globular…
The impact of metallicity on the mass-loss rate from red giant branch (RGB) stars is studied through its effect on the parameters of horizontal branch (HB) stars. The scaling factors from Reimers (1975) and Schroder & Cuntz (2005) are…