1. Chemically-Peculiar Red Giants: Uncovering the Binary Intruders
- Author
-
Alain Jorissen and Sophie Van Eck
- Subjects
Physics ,Stellar population ,Astronomy ,Binary number ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Spectral line ,Stars ,Nucleosynthesis ,Abundance (ecology) ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Binary system ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics - Abstract
It is now widely recognised that peculiar red giants such as S stars are overgrown with “extrinsic” stars. Those binary masqueraders share the same abundance peculiarities as the prototypes of their spectral family (as judged from low-resolution spectra), but have a totally different evolutionary history (chemical peculiarities originating from mass transfer across a binary system instead of internal nucleosynthesis). Some characteristic properties of these extrinsic stars are investigated and the importance of un-masking them in stellar population studies is stressed.
- Published
- 2001
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