Blue straggler stars beyond the Milky Way. IV. Radial distributions and dynamical implications. (arXiv:1812.07154v1 [astro-ph.GA])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Li_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Chengyuan Li</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sun_W/0/1/0/all/0/1">Weijia Sun</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Hong_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Jongsuk Hong</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Deng_L/0/1/0/all/0/1">Licai Deng</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Grijs_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Richard de Grijs</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sills_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Alison Sills</a>
Blue straggler stars have been proposeed as powerful indicators to measure
the dynamical state of Galactic globular clusters. Here we examine for the
first time if this framework of blue straggler stars as dynamical clocks, which
was specifically developed for Galactic globular clusters, may also hold for
younger globular clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Using Hubble Space
Telescope observations, we study seven Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters
with ages between ~700 Myr and 7 Gyr. We confirm that our sample clusters are
consistent with the empirical correlation previously derived for Galactic
globular clusters, within a modest tolerance. We suggest that to further
examine if blue straggler stars can measure the dynamical state of their host
clusters over an extended range of dynamical ages, more studies of dynamically
older Magellanic Cloud clusters are required. We discuss the physical
implications of our results in terms of their central, dimensionless King
potential, as well as the initial retention fraction of black holes.
Blue straggler stars have been proposeed as powerful indicators to measure
the dynamical state of Galactic globular clusters. Here we examine for the
first time if this framework of blue straggler stars as dynamical clocks, which
was specifically developed for Galactic globular clusters, may also hold for
younger globular clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Using Hubble Space
Telescope observations, we study seven Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters
with ages between ~700 Myr and 7 Gyr. We confirm that our sample clusters are
consistent with the empirical correlation previously derived for Galactic
globular clusters, within a modest tolerance. We suggest that to further
examine if blue straggler stars can measure the dynamical state of their host
clusters over an extended range of dynamical ages, more studies of dynamically
older Magellanic Cloud clusters are required. We discuss the physical
implications of our results in terms of their central, dimensionless King
potential, as well as the initial retention fraction of black holes.
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