An empirical clock to measure the dynamical age of stellar systems

2013/10/25 by E. Dalessandro, Emanuele Dalessandro, Dalessandro, Emanuele
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1310.6860

7 pages, 5 figures, paper presented at the 10th Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar Astrophysics, Seoul, May 27-31, 2013, ASP Conference Series

arxiv created 2013/10/25 · openalex publication_date 2013/10/25 · arxiv updated 2013/10/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Blue Straggler Stars (BSS) are among the brightest and more massive stars in globular clusters (GCs). For this reason they represent an ideal tool to probe the dynamical evolution of these stellar systems. Here I show, following the results by Ferraro et al. (2012), that the BSS radial distribution can be used as a powerful indicator of the cluster dynamical age. In fact on the basis of their BSS radial distribution shape, GCs can be efficiently grouped in different families corresponding to the different dynamical stages reached by the stellar systems. This allows to define a first empirical clock, the dynamical clock, able to measure the dynamical age of a stellar system from pure observational quantities.

Related

• Blue straggler stars beyond the Milky Way. IV. Radial distributions and dynamical implications
• Determination of dynamical ages of open clusters through the A⁺ parameter -- II
• Characterizing Blue Straggler Star Populations in Globular Clusters using HST Photometric Survey Data
• Dependence of the old star clusters' dynamical clock on the host galaxy gravitational field
• Open cluster BSS dynamical clock dependence on the Milly Way gravitational field