Speaker
Corinne Charbonnel
(Geneva Observatory & CNRS)
Description
Galactic globular clusters (GC) stars exhibit abundance patterns which are not shared
by their field counterparts, e.g. the well-documented O-Na and Mg-Al
anticorrelations. Recent observations provided compelling evidence that these
abundance anomalies were already present in the intracluster gas from which the
observed stars formed. A widely held hypothesis is that the gas was polluted early in
the history of the GC by material processed through H-burning at high temperature and
then lost by stars more massive than the presently observed long-lived stars. However
the "polluters" have not been unambiguously identified yet. Most studies have focused
on AGB stars, but rotating massive stars present an interesting alternative.
In this talk we try to answer to the following question : "Are GC ideal laboratories
to test hydrogen-burning nucleosynthesis and hydrodynamics in stars?" We critically
analyse the pros and cons of both potential stellar polluters. We discuss the
constraints that the observational data bring on the stellar nucleosynthesis and
hydrodynamics as well as on nuclear reaction rates.
Author
Corinne Charbonnel
(Geneva Observatory & CNRS)
