The role of AGB stars in the evolution of globular clusters

Abstract

AbstractThe results from high-resolution spectroscopy and accurate photometry have challenged the traditional paradigm that stars in globular clusters (GC) are simple stellar populations, rather suggesting that these structures harbor distinct groups of stars, differing in the chemical composition, particularly in the abundances of the light elements, from helium to silicon. Because this behavior is not shared by field stars, it is generally believed that some self-enrichment mechanism must have acted in GC, such that new stellar generations formed from the ashes of stars belonging to the original population. In this review, after presenting the state-of-the-art of the observations of GC stars, we discuss the possibility that the pollution of the intra-cluster medium was provided by the winds of AGB stars of initial mass above ∼3 M⊙. These objects evolve with time scales of 40 − 100 Myr and contaminate their surroundings with gas processed by p-capture nucleosynthesis, in agreement with the chemical patterns traced by GC stars.