Blue Straggler Stars in the Unusual Globular Cluster NGC 6388

TL;DR

This study investigates the distribution and characteristics of blue straggler stars in NGC 6388, revealing unexpected dynamical behavior and detailed sub-populations within the horizontal branch, using high-resolution multi-band observations.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of BSS distribution and horizontal branch sub-populations in NGC 6388, highlighting anomalies in dynamical friction effects.

Findings

BSS distribution is bimodal with unexpected population in the zone of avoidance.

Horizontal branch contains three distinct sub-populations with similar radial distributions.

Dynamical friction appears less effective than theoretical predictions.

Abstract

We have used multi-band high resolution HST WFPC2 and ACS observations combined with wide field ground-based observations to study the blue straggler star (BSS) population in the galactic globular cluster NGC 6388. As in several other clusters we have studied, the BSS distribution is found to be bimodal: highly peaked in the cluster center, rapidly decreasing at intermediate radii, and rising again at larger radii. In other clusters the sparsely populated intermediate-radius region (or ``zone of avoidance'') corresponds well to that part of the cluster where dynamical friction would have caused the more massive BSS or their binary progenitors to settle to the cluster center. Instead, in NGC 6388, BSS still populate a region that should have been cleaned out by dynamical friction effects, thus suggesting that dynamical friction is somehow less efficient than expected. As by-product of these observations, the peculiar morphology of the horizontal branch (HB) is also confirmed. In particular, within the (very extended) blue portion of the HB we are able to clearly characterize three sub-populations: ordinary blue HB stars, extreme HB stars, and blue hook stars. Each of these populations has a radial distribution which is indistinguishable from normal cluster stars.