大样本恒星演化研究组知识库

The formation mechanism for blue hook (BHk) stars in globular clusters (GCs) is still unclear. Following one of the possible scenarios, called the late hot flash scenario, we propose that a tidally enhanced stellar wind in binary evolution might provide the huge mass loss on the red giant branch (RGB) and produce BHk stars. Employing the detailed stellar evolution code MESA (Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics), we have investigated the contributions of tidally enhanced stellar wind as a possible formation channel for BHk stars in GCs. We evolved the primary stars with different initial orbital periods using the binary module in MESA (version 6208) from the zero-age main-sequence (ZAMS) to the post-horizontal branch (HB) stage, and obtained their evolution parameters, which are compared with the observation. The results are consistent with observations in the colour-magnitude diagram and the log g-T-eff plane for NGC 2808, which is an example GC hosting BHk stars. However, the helium abundance in the surface for our models is higher than the one obtained in BHk stars. This discrepancy between our models and observations is possibly due to the fact that gravitational settling and radiative levitation, which are common processes in hot HB stars, are not considered in the models as well as the fact that the flash mixing efficiency might be overestimated in the calculations. Our results suggest that tidally enhanced stellar wind in binary evolution is able to naturally provide the huge mass loss on the RGB needed for the late hot flash scenario, and it is a possible and reasonable formation channel for BHk stars in GCs.