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19 - Clocks and Scales: Playing with the Physics of Blue Stragglers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2019

Giacomo Beccari
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Garching
Henri M. J. Boffin
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Garching
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Summary

The so-called blue straggler Ssars (BSSs) represent the most striking (and certainly the most famous) evidence of binary stars in Galactic Globular Clusters (GCs). In this chapter, the most intriguing properties of BSSs are discussed and two innovative tools based on the physical properties of these fascinating objects are presented: (1) the dynamical clock, and (2) the stellar scale. The former uses the level of central segregation of BSSs to empirically measure the level of dynamical evolution suffered by the parent cluster. The the stellar scale is a spectroscopic tool that allows differential measures of stellar mass able to efficiently distinguish massive objects (as the elusive evolved BSS progeny) from normal low-mass cluster stars.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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