Related papers: Composition Mixing during Blue Straggler Formation…
We explore the evolution of collisionally merged stars in the blue straggler region of the HR diagram. The starting models for our stellar evolution calculations are the results of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of…
Blue stragglers are thought to be formed from the merger or coalescence of two stars, but the details of their formation in clusters has been difficult to disentangle. We discuss the two main formation mechanisms for blue stragglers…
The core of the Galactic Globular Cluster M3 (NGC 5272) has been observed with the WFPC2 through the filters F255W, F336W, F555W, and F814W. Using these observations along with a thorough reanalysis of earlier catalogs, we have produced a…
An Eulerian TVD code and a Lagrangian SPH code are used to simulate the off-axis collision of equal-mass main sequence stars in order to address the question of whether stellar mergers can produce a remnant star where the interior has been…
In this chapter we review the various suggested channels for the formation and evolution of blue straggler stars (BSSs) in different environments and their observational predictions. These include mass transfer during binary stellar…
Blue stragglers in globular clusters are abnormally massive stars that should have evolved off the stellar main sequence long ago. There are two known processes that can create these objects: direct stellar collisions and binary evolution.…
Stellar mergers and common-envelope evolution are fast (dynamical-timescale) interactions in binary stars that drastically alter their evolution. They are key to understanding a plethora of astrophysical phenomena. Stellar mergers are…
We study the post-main sequence evolution of products of collisions between main sequence stars (blue stragglers), with particular interest paid to the horizontal branch and asymptotic giant branch phases. We found that the blue straggler…
(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…
Recent high-quality Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photometry shows that the main sequences (MS) stars of young star clusters form two discrete components in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD). Based on their distribution in the CMD, we show…
We have analyzed populations of blue straggler stars (BSSs) in 24 Magellanic Cloud star clusters using multi-passband Hubble Space Telescope images. We compiled a homogeneous BSS database, containing both traditional and evolved BSSs. We…
We perform three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of aspherical core-collapse supernovae focusing on the matter mixing in SN 1987A. The impacts of four progenitor (pre-supernova) models and parameterized aspherical explosions are…
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…
In this paper, a grid of the binary evolution models are calculated for the study of blue straggler (BS) population in intermediate age ($\log Age$=7.85-8.95) star clusters. The BS formation via mass transfer and merging is studied…
In open star clusters, where all members formed at about the same time, blue straggler stars are typically observed to be brighter and bluer than hydrogen-burning main-sequence stars, and therefore should already have evolved into giant…
Recent HST observations of a large sample of globular clusters reveal that every cluster contains between 40 and 400 blue stragglers. The population does not correlate with either stellar collision rate (as would be expected if all blue…
In Paper I, we followed the evolution of binary stars as they orbited near the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the Galactic center, noting the cases in which the two stars would come close enough together to collide. In this paper we…
We carry out a comprehensive smooth particle hydrodynamics simulation survey of double-degenerate white dwarf binary mergers of varying mass combinations in order to establish correspondence between initial conditions and remnant…
Most of massive stars form in binary or higher-order systems in clumpy, sub-structured clusters. In the very first phases of their life, these stars are expected to interact with the surrounding environment, before being released to the…
When two stars collide and merge they form a new star that can stand out against the background population in a starcluster as a blue straggler. In so called collision runaways many stars can merge and may form a very massive star that…