Discovery of Carbon/Oxygen-depleted Blue Straggler Stars in 47 Tucanae: The Chemical Signature of a Mass Transfer Formation Process
Abstract
We use high-resolution spectra obtained with the ESO Very Large Telescope to measure surface abundance patterns of 43 blue straggler stars (BSSs) in 47 Tuc. We discovered that a subpopulation of BSSs shows a significant depletion of carbon and oxygen with respect to the dominant population. This evidence would suggest the presence of CNO burning products on the BSS surface coming from a deeply peeled parent star, as expected in the case of a mass transfer process. This is the first detection of a chemical signature clearly pointing to a specific BSS formation process in a globular cluster.
Based on observations collected at the ESO-VLT (Cerro Paranal, Chile) under program 072.D-0337.- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- August 2006
- DOI:
- 10.1086/507327
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0610081
- Bibcode:
- 2006ApJ...647L..53F
- Keywords:
-
- Stars: Blue Stragglers;
- Galaxy: Globular Clusters: Individual: NGC Number: NGC 104;
- Stars: Abundances;
- Stars: Evolution;
- Techniques: Spectroscopic;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Published on 2006, August 10, in ApJ 647, L53