Related papers: Surface pollution of main-sequence stars through e…
All Globular Clusters (GCs) studied in detail so far host two or more populations of stars. Theoretical models suggest that the second population is formed from gas polluted by processed material produced by massive stars of the first…
The stars in the Magellanic Clouds with the largest degree of obscuration are used to probe the highly uncertain physics of stars in the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase of evolution. Carbon stars in particular, provide key information…
A small fraction of the halo field is made up of stars that share the light element (Z<=13) anomalies characteristic of second generation globular cluster (GC) stars. The ejected stars shed light on the formation of the Galactic halo by…
This paper presents the first study of the most massive globular cluster (GC) in the Milky Way, omega Centauri, employing recently acquired JWST deep images. By combining these data with archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images, we…
Omega Centauri is a peculiar Globular Cluster formed by a complex stellar population. To shed light on this, we studied 172 stars belonging to the 5 SGBs that we can identify in our photometry, in order to measure their [Fe/H] content as…
Stars in globular clusters (GCs) exhibit a peculiar chemical pattern with strong abundance variations in light elements along with a constant abundance in heavy elements. These abundance anomalies can be explained by a primordial pollution…
The various scenarios proposed for the origin of the multiple, helium-enriched populations in massive globular clusters are critically compared to the relevant constraining observations. Among accretion of helium-rich material by…
We discuss the self-enrichment scenario by AGB stars for the formation of multiple populations in globular clusters (GCs) by analyzing data set of giant stars observed in 9 Galactic GCs, covering a wide range of metallicities and for which…
We present the first chemical composition study of two unevolved stars in the globular cluster NGC 2808, obtained with the spectrograph X-shooter@VLT. NGC 2808 shows three discrete, well separated main sequences. The most accepted…
Two generations of stars, G1 and G2, typically populate Galactic globular clusters (GCs). The origin of G2 stars is unclear. We uncover two empirical dependencies between GC characteristics, which can be explained by the formation of G2…
Historically, photometry has been largely used to identify stellar populations (MPs) in Globular Clusters (GCs) by using diagrams that are based on colours and magnitudes that are mostly sensitive to stars with different metallicities or…
We present abundances of several light, alpha, Fe-peak, and neutron-capture elements for 66 red giant branch (RGB) stars in the Galactic globular cluster Omega Centauri. Our observations lie in the range 12.0<V<13.5 and focus on the…
A large number of spectroscopic studies have provided evidence of the presence of multiple populations in globular clusters by revealing patterns in the stellar chemical abundances. This paper is aimed at studying the origin of these…
We studied the color distribution of the main sequence of the Globular Cluster NGC 2808, based on new deep HST-WFPC2 photometry of a field in the uncrowded outskirts of the cluster. The color distribution of main sequence stars is wider…
Abundance anomalies observed in globular cluster stars indicate pollution with material processed by hydrogen burning. Two main sources have been suggested: asymptotic giant branch stars and massive stars rotating near the break-up limit.…
We herein determine the average integrated mass loss from stars stars belonging to the dominant metal-poor population ([Fe/H] ~ --1.7) of the Galactic globular cluster omega Centauri (NGC 5139) during their red giant and horizontal branch…
The mean color of globular clusters (GCs) in early-type galaxies is in general bluer than the integrated color of halo field stars in host galaxies. Metal-rich GCs often appear more associated with field stars than metal-poor GCs, yet show…
Stars of intermediate mass (~4-8Msun) evolve to the stage of white dwarfs through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stage: stationary hydrogen shell burning and helium thermal pulses, wind mass loss and planetary nebula ejection. Almost the…
It is becoming clear that `self--pollution' by the ejecta of massive asymptotic giant branch stars has an important role in the early chemical evolution of globular cluster stars, producing CNO abundance spreads which are observed also at…
Recent findings show that, in some Milky Way globular clusters (GCs), pristine red giant branch (RGB) stars are more centrally concentrated than enriched RGB stars. This contradicts most multiple-population formation scenarios, which…