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Register a new userA spectroscopic study of the blue stragglers in M67
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Based on spectrophotometric observations from the Guillermo Haro Observatory (Cananea, Mexico), a study of the spectral properties of the complete sample of 24 blue straggler stars (BSs) in the old Galactic open cluster M67 (NGC 2682) is presented. All spectra, calibrated using spectral standards, were recalibrated by means of photometric magnitudes in the Beijing-Arizona-Taipei-Connecticut system, which includes fluxes in 11 bands covering ~3500-10000 A. The set of parameters was obtained using two complementary approaches that rely on a comparison of the spectra with (i) an empirical sample of stars with well-established spectral types and (ii) a theoretical grid of optical spectra computed at both low and high resolution. The overall results indicate that the BSs in M67 span a wide range in Teff(~ 5600 -12600 K) and surface gravities that are fully compatible with those expected for main-sequence objects (log g = 3.5 -5.0 dex).
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We have made an asteroseismic analysis of the variable blue stragglers in the open cluster M67. The data set consists of photometric time series from eight sites using nine 0.6-2.1 meter telescopes with a time baseline of 43 days. In two stars, EW Cnc and EX Cnc, we detect the highest number of frequencies (41 and 26) detected in delta Scuti stars belonging to a stellar cluster, and EW Cnc has the second highest number of frequencies detected in any delta Scuti star. We have computed a grid of pulsation models that take the effects of rotation into account. The distribution of observed and theoretical frequencies show that in a wide frequency range a significant fraction of the radial and non-radial low-degree modes are excited to detectable amplitudes. Despite the large number of observed frequencies we cannot constrain the fundamental parameters of the stars. To make progress we need to identify the degrees of some of the modes either from multi-colour photometry or spectroscopy.
At an age of 4 Gyr, typical solar-type stars in M67 have rotation rates of 20-30 days. Using K2 Campaign 5 and 16 light curves and the spectral archive of the WIYN Open Cluster Study, we identify eleven three-dimensional kinematic members of M67 with anomalously fast rotation periods of 2-8 days, implying ages of less than 1 Gyr. We hypothesize that these anomalously fast rotators have been spun up by mass transfer, mergers, or stellar collisions during dynamical encounters within the last Gyr, and thus represent lower-luminosity counterparts to the blue straggler stars. These 11 candidate post-interaction stellar systems have much in common with the blue stragglers including a high binary fraction (73%), a number of long-period, low-eccentricity binary systems, and in at least one case a UV excess consistent with the presence of a hot white dwarf companion. The identification of these 11 systems provides the first picture of the low-luminosity end of the blue straggler distribution, providing new constraints for detailed binary evolution models and cluster population studies. This result also clearly demonstrates the need to properly account for the impact of binaries on stellar evolution, as significant numbers of post-interaction binaries likely exist on cluster main sequences and in the field. These stars are not always easy to identify, but make up ~10% of the spectroscopic binary population among the solar-type stars in M67.
Yellow straggler stars (YSSs) fall above the subgiant branch in optical color-magnitude diagrams, between the blue stragglers and the red giants. YSSs may represent a population of evolved blue stragglers, but none have the direct and precise mass and radius measurements needed to determine their evolutionary states and formation histories. Here we report the first asteroseismic mass and radius measurements of such a star, the yellow straggler S1237 in the open cluster M67. We apply asteroseismic scaling relations to a frequency analysis of the Kepler K2 light curve and find a mass of 2.9 $pm$ 0.2 M$_{odot}$ and a radius of 9.2 $pm$ 0.2 R$_{odot}$. This is more than twice the mass of the main- sequence turnoff in M67, suggesting S1237 is indeed an evolved blue straggler. S1237 is the primary in a spectroscopic binary. We update the binary orbital solution and use spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting to constrain the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) location of the secondary star. We find that the secondary is likely an upper main-sequence star near the turnoff, but a slightly hotter blue straggler companion is also possible. We then compare the asteroseismic mass of the primary to its mass from CMD fitting, finding the photometry implies a mass and radius more than 2$sigma$ below the asteroseismic measurement. Finally, we consider formation mechanisms for this star and suggest that S1237 may have formed from dynamical encounters resulting in stellar collisions or a binary merger.
Stellar collisions are an important formation channel for blue straggler stars in globular and old open clusters. Hydrodynamical simulations have shown that the remnants of such collisions are out of thermal equilibrium, are not strongly mixed and can rotate very rapidly. Detailed evolution models of collision products are needed to interpret observed blue straggler populations and to use them to probe the dynamical history of a star cluster. We expand on previous studies by presenting an efficient procedure to import the results of detailed collision simulations into a fully implicit stellar evolution code. Our code is able to evolve stellar collision products in a fairly robust manner and allows for a systematic study of their evolution. Using our code we have constructed detailed models of the collisional blue stragglers produced in the $N$-body simulation of M67 performed by Hurley emph{et al.} in 2005. We assume the collisions are head-on and thus ignore the effects of rotation in this paper. Our detailed models are more luminous than normal stars of the same mass and in the same stage of evolution, but cooler than homogeneously mix
We analyze the position of the two populations of blue stragglers in the globular cluster M30 in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Both populations of blue stragglers are brighter than the clusters turn-off, but one population (the blue blue-stragglers) align along the zero-age main-sequence whereas the (red) population is elevated in brightness (or colour) by $sim 0.75$ mag. Based on stellar evolution and merger simulations we argue that the red population, which composes about 40% of the blue stragglers in M 30, is formed at a constant rate of $sim 2.8$ blue stragglers per Gyr over the last $sim 10$ Gyr. The blue population is formed in a burst that started $sim 3.2$ Gyr ago at a peak rate of $30$ blue stragglers per Gyr$^{-1}$ with an e-folding time scale of $0.93$ Gyr. We speculate that the burst resulted from the core collapse of the cluster at an age of about 9.8 Gyr, whereas the constantly formed population is the result of mass transfer and mergers through binary evolution. In that case about half the binaries in the cluster effectively result in a blue straggler.
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