Could the number of blue straggler stars help to determine the age of their parent globular cluster?

TL;DR

This study proposes a new empirical method using blue straggler stars to estimate globular cluster ages, aligning with existing methods and providing insights into cluster evolution and cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel empirical relation involving BSS, cluster age, and stellar collision factors to determine globular cluster ages.

Findings

Method applied to 56 clusters with consistent age estimates

NGC 104's age suggests possible presence of an intermediate black hole

Implications for cosmology if age estimates are accurate

Abstract

A recent study shows, from an empirical deduction, that the number and the presence of the blue straggler stars (BSS) in an open cluster follow a function whose components are the ratio between age and the relaxation time, $\it f$, and a factor, $\varpi$ , which is an indicator of stellar collisions plus primordial binaries. The relation among the number of blue straggler stars, the factor $\it f$, and the factor $\varpi$ of each globular cluster allows for deriving the age of the respective globular clusters. This method has been applied individually over 56 globular clusters containing BSS. The values derived for the cluster ages from our methodology do not differ from those derived from other methods. A special case is cluster NGC 104 whose age exceeds 13.8 Gyr (its age is between 19.04 and 20.30 Gyr), which would have a very exotic explanation: the existence of an intermediate black hole in the center of the cluster. That black hole main-sequence star (BH-MS) binaries with an initial orbital period less than the bifurcation period can evolve into ultra-compact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) that can be detected by LISA. On the other hand, if that age were true, it would call into question the expansion velocity for a flat Universe. This would call into question the case for dark energy dominated Universe.