• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.51-59
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• 2017

The presence of blue stragglers pose challenges to standard stellar evolution theory, in the sense that explaining their presence demands a complex interplay between stellar evolution and cluster dynamics. In the meantime, mass transfer in binary systems and stellar collisions are widely studied as a blue straggler formation channel. We explore properties of the Galactic open clusters where blue stragglers are found, in attempting to estimate the relative importance of these two favored processes, by comparing them with those resulting from open clusters in which blue stragglers are absent as of now. Unlike previous studies which require a sophisticated process in understanding the implication of the results, this approach is straightforward and has resulted in a supplementary supporting evidence for the current view on the blue straggler formation mechanism. Our main findings are as follows: (1) Open clusters in which blue stragglers are present have a broader distribution with respect to the Z-axis pointing towards the North Galactic Pole than those in which blue stragglers are absent. The probability that two distributions with respect to the Z-axis are drawn from the same distribution is 0.2%. (2) Average values of $log_10(t)$ of the clusters with blue stragglers and those without blue stragglers are $8.58{\pm}0.232$ and $7.52{\pm}0.285$, respectively. (3) The clusters with blue stragglers tend to be relatively redder than the others, and are distributed broader in colors. (4) The clusters with blue stragglers are likely brighter than those without blue stragglers. (5) Finally, blue stragglers seem to form in condensed clusters rather than simply dense clusters. Hence, we conclude that mass transfer in binaries seems to be a relatively important physical mechanism of the generation of blue stragglers in open clusters, provided they are sufficiently old.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 1984

UBV photoelectric observations were carried out for bright stars in M67 and the masses of clump stars and giant stars were derived in M67 and the other old open clusters, NGC 188, NGC 2420, NGC 2506 and IC 4651. The mean mass of clump stars in the five clusters ranges $m=0.5{\sim}1.0m_{\odot}$, and its ratio to the mean mass of giant stars is about 0.83. The number ratio of blue stragglers to the stars brighter than the turn-off of main sequence increases with cluster age whereas that of clump stars decreases with age. These results imply that the clump stars and blue stragglers are at the phase of horizontal branch evolution.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.139-140
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• 1996

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.47-64
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• 1992

Cores of globular clusters are an ideal place for close encounters between stars. The outcome of tidal capture can be stellar mergers, close binaries between normal stars (W UMa type), cataclysmic variables composed of white dwarf and normal star pairs, or low-mass X-ray binaries consisting of a neutron star and a normal star pairs. Stellar mergers can be the origin of blue stragglers in dense globular clusters although they are hard to observe. Low mass X-ray binaries would eventually become binary pulsars with short pulse periods after the neutron stars accrete sufficient amount of matter from the companion. However, large number of recently discovered, isolated millisecond pulsars (as opposed to binary pulsars) in globular clusters may imply that they do not have to gain angular speeds during the X-ray binary phase. We propose that these isolated millisecond pulsars may have formed through the disruptive encounters, which lead to the formation of accretion disk without Roche lobe filling companion, between a neutron star and a main-sequence star. Based on recently developed multicomponent models for the dynamical evolution of globular clusters, we compute the expected numbers of various systems formed by tidal capture as a function of time.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 1996

We present test results of time-series CCD photometry to investigate the photometric precision of the BOAO (Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory) 1.8m telescope. A well-known field of the old open cluster M67, which includes two pulsating blue stragglers and two W UMa type binaries, was monitored for 3.5 hours on February 22, 1996. We have collected 148 V frames and 3 B frames. Photometric noises which consist mainly of photon noise and scintillation noise, were lowered down to about 1.9 mmag for stars of $10.\;^m5$ in M67 with exposure time of 20 seconds. From the C-M diagram for M67, a number of observational properties were derived; E(B-V) = 0.03, (V-Mv)o = 9.6, Age = 4 Gyr. We obtained light curves for four known variable stars and confirmed their variational characteristics. The pulsating blue stragglers show a low amplitude (about 0.01 mag) of light variation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.81.1-81.1
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• 2010

We present a study of five open clusters (Alessi 53, Berkeley 49, Berkeley 84, Czernik 5, Pfleiderer 3) based on ugriz images of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Physical properties of these clusters are not yet well known. The center and size of these clusters are determined using the radial number density profile. Using the proper motion data, we select the members of the target clusters. We estimate physical parameters of the clusters based on the isochrone fitting in the Color-Magnitude Diagram (CMD) : reddening, distance, and age. The foreground reddening is determined to be E(B-V)=0.71-1.55 mag. The distances to target clusters are derived to be 2.0-4.4 kpc, corresponding to the galactocentric distances of 7.5-11.9 kpc. Their ages are in the range of 280 to 1000 Myr. Their spatial distribution in our Galaxy is similar to that of other intermediate-age open clusters. We find ten blue straggler star candidates in Berkeley 49. This number of blue stragglers is a typical value for the age of Berkeley 49.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.86.2-86.2
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• 2017

Blue stragglers (BSs) are the objects that are brighter and bluer than the stars at main-sequence turn-off point. In this study, we present the Ca-by and VI photometry for Galactic dwarf spheroidal galaxies using Subaru/Suprime-Cam and investigate the spatial distribution characteristics of BS stars using the hk index as a photometric metallicity indicator. We compare the cumulative radial distribution of the BS stars with those of two groups of red-giant-branch (RGB) stars divided by the hk-index strength, and find that the spatial distribution of all BS stars is closer to that of hk-weak (i.e. metal-poor) RGB stars. We also find that the hk-strong BS stars are more centrally concentrated than the hk-weak ones. We will discuss the use of hk-index as a metallicity indicator for the hot BS stars and suggest possible explanations for the results in terms of the origin of BS stars in the dwarf gal.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.35.2-35.2
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• 2021

Blue straggler stars (BSs) are "rejuvenated" main sequence stars first recognized by Allan Sandage from his observation of the prominent northern globular cluster M3 in the year of 1953. BSs are now known to be present in diverse stellar environments including open clusters, globular clusters, dwarf galaxies, and even the field populations of the Milky Way. This makes them a very useful tool in a wide range of astrophysical applications: Particularly BSs are considered to have a crucial role in the evolution of stellar clusters because they affect on the dynamics, the binary population, and the history of the stellar evolution of the cluster they belong to. Here we report a part of the preliminary results from our ongoing research on the BSs in the two metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), Hodge 11 and NGC1466. Using the high precision multi-band images obtained with the Advanced Camera for Survey (ACS) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we extract time-series photometry to search for the signal of periodic variations in the luminosity of the BSs. Our preliminary results confirm that several BSs are intrinsic "short period (0.05 < P < 0.25 days)" variable stars with either pulsating or eclipsing types. We will discuss our investigation on the properties of those variable BS candidates in the context of the formation channels of these exotic main sequence stars, and their roles in the dynamical evolution of the host star clusters.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 1997

The results of a restricted numerical simulation for the color gradients within globular clusters have been presented. The standard luminosity function of M3 and Salperter's initial mass functions were used to generate model clusters as a fundamental population. Color gradients with the sample clusters for both King and power law cusp models of surface brightness distributions are discussed in the case of using the standard luminosity function. The dependence of color gradients on several parameters for the simulations with Salpter's initial mass functions, such as slope of initial mass functions, cluster ages, metallicities, concentration parameters of King model, and slopes of power law, are also discussed. No significant radial color gradients are shown to the sample clusters which are regenerated by a random number generation technique with various parameters in both of King and power law cusp models of surface brightness distributions. Dynamical mass segregation and stellar evolution of horizontal branch stars and blue stragglers should be included for the general case of model simulations to show the observed radial color gradients within globular clusters.