SCYON Abstract

Received on December 12 2011

Formation of Multiple Populations in Globular Clusters: Another Possible Scenario

Authors	Aldo A.R. Valcarce and Márcio Catelan
Affiliation	Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Departamento de Astronomía y Astrofísica, Av. Vicuna Mackena 4860, 782-0436 Macul, Santiago, Chile
Accepted by:	Astronomy & Astrophysics)
Contact	avalcarc@astro.puc.cl
URL	http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011A&A...533A.120V
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Abstract

Globular clusters (GCs) are spheroidal concentrations typically containing of the order of 10⁵ to 10⁶, predominantly old, stars. Historically, they have been considered as the closest counterparts of the idealized concept of "simple stellar populations." However, some recent observations suggest than, at least in some GCs, some stars are present that have been formed with material processed by a previous generation of stars. In this sense, it has also been suggested that such material might be enriched in helium, and that blue horizontal branch stars in some GCs should accordingly be the natural progeny of such helium-enhanced stars. In this contribution we show that, at least in the case of M3 (NGC 5272), the suggested level of helium enrichment is not supported by the available, high-precision observations.