The dynamical state of the globular clusters Rup 106 and IC 4499 by Giacomo Beccari et al. on Wednesday 30 November

The dynamical evolution of globular clusters is theoretically described by a

series of well known events typical of N-body systems. Still, the

identification of observational signatures able to empirically describe the

stage of dynamical evolution of a stellar system of the density typical of a

globular cluster, represents a challenge. In this paper we study the dynamical

age of the globular clusters Rup 106 and IC 4499. To this aim, we study the

radial distribution of the Blue Straggler Stars via the A+ parameter and of the

slope of the Main Sequence Mass Function. Both tracers show that Rup 106 and IC

4499 are dynamically young clusters where dynamical friction has just started

to segregate massive stars towards the clusters' centre. In fact, we observe

that the Blue Straggler stars are more centrally concentrated in both clusters

than the reference population. On the same line, we find that in both cases the

slope of the mass function significantly decreases as a function of the

cluster-centric distances. This result provides additional support for the use

of the the radial distribution of the blue stragglers as a powerful

observationally convenient indicator of the cluster dynamical age.

arXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.12884v2