Supermassive stars as a source of abundance anomalies of proton-capture elements in globular clusters

2013/05/31 by Pavel A. Denissenkov, F. D. A. Hartwick · 299 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Cluster (spacecraft) #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Globular cluster #Metallicity #Physics #Star cluster #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.SR

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slt133

published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters 437(1), L21-L25 (Oxford University Press) · 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters

arxiv created 2013/09/23 · openalex publication_date 2013/10/18 · arxiv updated 2015/06/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Abstract We propose that the abundance anomalies of proton-capture elements in globular clusters, such as the C-N, Na-O, Mg-Al and Na-F anticorrelations, were produced by supermassive stars with M ∼ 104 M⊙. Such stars could form in the runaway collisions of massive stars that sank to the cluster centre as a result of dynamical friction, or via the direct monolithic collapse of the low-metallicity gas cloud from which the cluster formed. To explain the observed abundance anomalies, we assume that the supermassive stars had lost significant parts of their initial masses when only a small mass fraction of hydrogen, ΔX ∼ 0.15, was transformed into helium. We speculate that the required mass-loss might be caused by the super-Eddington radiation continuum-driven stellar wind or by the diffusive mode of the Jeans instability.

Citations

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