Bibcode
Renzini, A.; D'Antona, F.; Cassisi, S.; King, I. R.; Milone, A. P.; Ventura, P.; Anderson, J.; Bedin, L. R.; Bellini, A.; Brown, T. M.; Piotto, G.; van der Marel, R. P.; Barbuy, B.; Dalessandro, E.; Hidalgo, S. L.; Marino, A. F.; Ortolani, S.; Salaris, M.; Sarajedini, A.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 454, Issue 4, p.4197-4207
Advertised on:
12
2015
Citations
279
Refereed citations
245
Description
We build on the evidence provided by our Legacy Survey of Galactic
globular clusters (GC) to submit to a crucial test four scenarios
currently entertained for the formation of multiple stellar generations
in GCs. The observational constraints on multiple generations to be
fulfilled are manifold, including GC specificity, ubiquity, variety,
predominance, discreteness, supernova avoidance, p-capture processing,
helium enrichment and mass budget. We argue that scenarios appealing to
supermassive stars, fast rotating massive stars and massive interactive
binaries violate in an irreparable fashion two or more among such
constraints. Also the scenario appealing to asymptotic giant branch
(AGB) stars as producers of the material for next generation stars
encounters severe difficulties, specifically concerning the mass budget
problem and the detailed chemical composition of second-generation
stars. We qualitatively explore ways possibly allowing one to save the
AGB scenario, specifically appealing to a possible revision of the
cross-section of a critical reaction rate destroying sodium, or
alternatively by a more extensive exploration of the vast parameter
space controlling the evolutionary behaviour of AGB stellar models.
Still, we cannot ensure success for these efforts and totally new
scenarios may have to be invented to understand how GCs formed in the
early Universe.
Related projects
Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
The general aim of the project is to research the structure, evolutionary history and formation of galaxies through the study of their resolved stellar populations, both from photometry and spectroscopy. The group research concentrates in the most nearby objects, namely the Local Group galaxies including the Milky Way and M33 under the hypothesis
Martín
López Corredoira