2015/10/05 by N. Bastian, Bastian, Nate
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1510.01330
openalex publication_date 2015/10/05 · openalex created_date 2022/09/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A number of scenarios have been put forward to explain the origin of the\nchemical anomalies (and resulting complex colour-magnitude diagrams) observed\nin globular clusters (GCs), namely the AGB, Fast Rotating Massive Star, Very\nMassive Star, and Early Disc Accretion scenarios. We compare the predictions of\nthese scenarios with a range of observations (including young massive clusters\n(YMCs), chemical patterns, and GC population properties) and find that all\nmodels are inconsistent with observations. In particular, YMCs do not show\nevidence for multiple epochs of star-formation and appear to be gas free by an\nage of ~3 Myr. Also, the chemical patterns displayed in GCs vary from one to\nthe next in such a way that cannot be reproduced by standard nucleosynthetic\nyields. Finally, we show that the "mass budget problem" for the scenarios\ncannot be solved by invoking heavy cluster mass loss (i.e. that clusters were\n10-100 times more massive at birth) as this solution makes basic predictions\nabout the GC population that are inconsistent with observations. We conclude\nthat none of the proposed scenarios can explain the multiple population\nphenomenon, hence alternative theories are needed.\n