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A secondary clump of red giant stars: why and where

1999; Oxford University Press; Volume: 308; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02746.x

1365-2966

L. Girardi,

Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies

Based on the results of detailed population synthesis models, Girardi et al. recently claimed that the clump of red giants in the colour—magnitude diagram (CMD) of composite stellar populations should present an extension to lower luminosities, which goes down to about 0.4 mag below the main clump. This feature is made of stars just massive enough to have ignited helium in non-degenerate conditions, and therefore corresponds to a limited interval of stellar masses and ages. In the present models, which include moderate convective overshooting, it corresponds to ∼1 Gyr old populations.