Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-fmk2r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-21T18:29:44.380Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the Bimodal Distributions of Horizontal Branches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2016

Young-Wook Lee
Affiliation:
Yale University Observatory
Pierre Demarque
Affiliation:
Yale University Observatory
Robert Zinn
Affiliation:
Yale University Observatory

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

New synthetic horizontal branch (HB) models are presented for some globular clusters known to have bimodal HB distributions. These models are based on new Yale HB evolutionary tracks for Y=0.25 and the core masses appropriate for the compositions. The distribution of stellar masses along the HB is given by a slightly modified version of Rood's (1973) function. Figure 1 compares the synthetic and the observed color-magnitude diagrams and the generalized histograms of the distribution of HB stars over (B-V)o (observational data from Alcaino & Liller 1984, Buonanno et al. 1981, Stetson 1981, and Menzies 1974 for clusters M4, M5, N1851, and N6723 respectively). Following Norris (1981), we have used the period-luminosity-color relations to estimate the colors of some RR Lyrae variables. Since none of the parameters in the models has a bimodal distribution, the excellent agreement between the color distributions of the models and the observations suggests that the observed bimodal distributions are a consequence of the evolution from the zero-age HB. Contrary to the suggestion of Norris (1981) and Smith & Norris (1983), there is no need to connect the bimodality of the HB with the observed bimodal CN distributions of the red giants in some of these clusters. The clusters in Figure 1 span a narrow range in metallicity ([Fe/H]=-1.40 to −1.09; Zinn 1985), and we are investigating other, less well observed, clusters in this range (e.g., N2808) to see if their bimodal HB distributions also have simple explanations.

Type
Chapter VII. Poster Papers on Harlow Shapley and Globular Clusters in the Milky Way
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1988 

References

REFERENCES

Alcaino, G. and Liller, W. 1984 Astrophys. J. Suppl. 56, 19.Google Scholar
Buonanno, R., Corsi, C. and Fusi Pecci, F. 1981 Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 196 435.Google Scholar
Menzies, J. 1974 Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 168, 177.Google Scholar
Norris, J. 1981 Astrophys. J. 248, 177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rood, R. 1973 Astrophys. J. 184, 815.Google Scholar
Smith, G. and Norris, J. 1983 Astrophys. J. 264, 215.Google Scholar
Stetson, P. 1981 Astron. J. 86, 687.Google Scholar
Zinn, R. 1985 Astrophys. J. 293, 424.Google Scholar