A Spectroscopic Analysis of Blue Stragglers, Horizontal Branch Stars, and Turnoff Stars in Four Globular Clusters

Abstract

We present a spectroscopic analysis of HST STIS and FOS low- and intermediate-resolution spectroscopy of 55 stars in four globular clusters (47 Tucanae, M3, NGC 6752, and NGC 6397). Stars hotter than Teff = 5750 K and with a signal-to-noise ratio larger than 15 were analyzed with non-local thermodynamic equilibrium model atmospheres, and values for their effective temperatures and gravities were obtained. Using photometric fluxes, we also obtained radii, luminosities, and spectroscopic masses. Twenty-four stars in our sample are blue stragglers (BSs). Their photometric colors and magnitudes place these BSs above and redward of the clusters' zero-age main sequence: this is consistent with the gravities we find for these stars, which are lower than zero-age main-sequence gravities. A comparison with stellar evolutionary tracks shows that almost all of our BSs are in the Hertzsprung gap. This is contrary to theory, because of the short timescale expected for stars in this evolutionary phase. The mean BS mass is 1.04 M☉ for 14 nonvariable stars, or 1.07 M☉ counting all 24 BSs in our sample. For the nonvariable stars the mean BS masses for individual clusters are 1.73, 1.01, 0.95, and 0.72 M☉ for NGC 6397, NGC 6752, 47 Tuc, and M3, respectively. Adding the variable stars (which improves the statistics but increases the uncertainty), the mean masses become 1.27, 1.05, 0.99, and 0.99 M☉, respectively. Although there is considerable scatter, the BS spectroscopic masses correlate with both effective temperature and brightness of the stars, as expected. The mean nonvariable turnoff star mass (0.58 M☉) is significantly below the values determined for the BSs and below the main-sequence turnoff mass. The mean nonvariable horizontal-branch (HB) star mass is higher than expected (0.79 M☉). In particular, several HB stars have masses well above the main-sequence turnoff mass. Some of these HB stars are suspected of actually being BSs, since most of them reside at ambiguous locations on the CMD, making them prone to misclassification. Values and limits to the stellar rotation rates (v sin i) are imposed by fitting weak metal lines, the Ca II K line wings, or the helium lines for the hotter stars. Five BSs with reasonably constrained rotations show average and median v sin i values of 109 and 100 km s-1, respectively, suggesting v ~ 160 km s-1. At least some GC BSs are very rapid rotators, but this information cannot yet constrain their origin as stellar collision or binary mergers because of the lack of clear theoretical predictions. Six extreme HB stars have rotation rates v sin i between 50 and 200 km s-1, which are high for these stars and might indicate a binary origin. De Marco et al. found that four BSs and two HB stars in our sample have Balmer jumps that are too large for the effective temperatures implied by the slopes of their Paschen continua. Two additional HB stars are now identified in the current study as having the same feature. For these stars, the presence of a disk of partly ionized material is suspected, although high stellar rotation rates could also partly explain the data.