The first Delta a observations of three globular clusters

TL;DR

This study employs Delta a photometry to detect peculiar stars in three globular clusters, revealing about 3% of stars with abnormal features, and providing a foundation for future detailed stellar evolution research.

Contribution

First application of Delta a photometry to globular clusters, demonstrating its effectiveness in identifying chemically peculiar stars in these environments.

Findings

Approximately 3% of stars show peculiarities in the diagnostic diagrams.

Excellent agreement between Delta a measurements and published abundances for horizontal-branch stars.

Promising results for future photometric and spectroscopic follow-up studies.

Abstract

Globular clusters are main astrophysical laboratories to test and modify evolutionary models. Thought to be rather homogeneous in their local elemental Distribution of members, results suggest a wide variety of chemical peculiarities. Besides different main sequences, believed to be caused by different helium abundances, peculiarities of blue horizontal-branch stars and on the red giant branch were found. This whole zoo of peculiar objects has to be explained in the context of stellar formation and evolution. The tool of Delta a photometry is employed in order to detect peculiar stars in the whole spectral range. This three filter narrow band system measures the flux distribution in the region from 4900 to 5600A in order to find any peculiarities around 5200A. It is highly efficient to detect classical chemically peculiar stars of the upper main sequence, Be/Ae, shell and metal-weak objects in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds. We present Delta a photometry of 2266 stars from 109 individual frames for three globular Clusters (NGC 104, NGC 6205, and NGC 7099). A comparison with published abundances, for three horizontal-branch stars, only, yield an excellent agreement. According to the 3 sigma detection limit of each globular cluster, about 3% of the stars lie in abnormal regions in the diagnostic diagrams. The first observations of three widely different aggregates give very promising results, which will serve as a solid basis for follow-up observations including photometric as well as spectroscopic studies.