Cyanogen distribution of the red giants in M5

Journal Article · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1983 · Astrophys. J.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1086/160588· OSTI ID:6240365

Smith, G H; Norris, J

A spectroscopic survey of 29 red giants of the globular cluster M5 shows that the distribution of cyanogen is strongly bimodal in the magnitude range -1.7< or =M/sub v/< or =-0.5. The ratio of CN-strong to CN-weak stars is 2.6:1. The strength of the G band appears to anticorrelate with that of cyanogen, suggestive of an anticorrelation in the abundances of carbon and nitrogen. M5 thus joins four, and possibly five, other clusters from a sample of 12 with sufficient data, to appear bimodal with respect to cyanogen. We discuss the implications of our result for the mixing and primordial hypotheses of abundance anomalies. We also address the question of a possible connection between the distribution of stars on the horizontal branch (HB) of M5 and its cyanogen distribution. Taken at face value, the HB distribution derived from data available in the literature cannot be fitted by a monomodal mass distribution.

• Research Organization: Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, Research School of Physical Sciences, Australian National University
• OSTI ID: 6240365
• Journal Information: Astrophys. J.; (United States), Journal Name: Astrophys. J.; (United States) Vol. 264:1; ISSN ASJOA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640102* -- Astrophysics &amp; Cosmology-- Stars &amp; Quasi-Stellar
Radio &amp; X-Ray Sources
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ABUNDANCE
CARBON
CYANOGEN
DIAGRAMS
ELEMENTS
GIANT STARS
HERTZSPRUNG-RUSSELL DIAGRAM
NITROGEN
NONMETALS
RED GIANT STARS
SPECTRA
STAR CLUSTERS
STARS
VISIBLE SPECTRA