Fast rotating blue stragglers prefer loose clusters

Francesco R. Ferraro (), Alessio Mucciarelli, Barbara Lanzoni, Cristina Pallanca, Mario Cadelano, Alex Billi, Alison Sills, Enrico Vesperini, Emanuele Dalessandro, Giacomo Beccari, Lorenzo Monaco and Mario Mateo
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Francesco R. Ferraro: Alma Mater Studiorum Universita‘ di Bologna
Alessio Mucciarelli: Alma Mater Studiorum Universita‘ di Bologna
Barbara Lanzoni: Alma Mater Studiorum Universita‘ di Bologna
Cristina Pallanca: Alma Mater Studiorum Universita‘ di Bologna
Mario Cadelano: Alma Mater Studiorum Universita‘ di Bologna
Alex Billi: Alma Mater Studiorum Universita‘ di Bologna
Alison Sills: McMaster University
Enrico Vesperini: Indiana University
Emanuele Dalessandro: INAF–Astrophysics and Space Science Observatory Bologna
Giacomo Beccari: Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
Lorenzo Monaco: Universidad Andres Bello, Sede Concepcion
Mario Mateo: University of Michigan

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Blue stragglers are anomalously luminous core hydrogen-burning stars formed through mass-transfer in binary/triple systems and stellar collisions. Their physical and evolutionary properties are largely unknown and unconstrained. Here we analyze 320 high-resolution spectra of blue stragglers collected in eight galactic globular clusters with different structural characteristics and show evidence that the fraction of fast rotating blue stragglers (with rotational velocities larger than 40 km/s) increases for decreasing central density of the host system. This trend suggests that fast spinning blue stragglers prefer low-density environments and promises to open an unexplored route towards understanding the evolutionary processes of these stars. Since large rotation rates are expected in the early stages of both formation channels, our results provide direct evidence for recent blue straggler formation activity in low-density environments and put strong constraints on the timescale of the collisional blue straggler slow-down processes.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38153-w

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