Paper detail

Chemical abundances of blue straggler stars in Galactic Globular Clusters

By using the high resolution spectrograph FLAMES@VLT we performed the first systematic campaign devoted to measure chemical abundances of blue straggler stars (BSSs). These stars, whose existence is not predicted by the canonical stellar evolutionary theory, are likely the product of the interactions between stars in the dense environment of Globular Clusters. Two main scenarios for BSS formation (mass transfer in binary systems and stellar collisions) have been proposed and hydrodynamical simulations predict different chemical patterns in the two cases, in particular C and O depletion for mass transfer BSSs. In this contribution, the main results for BSS samples in 6 Globular Clusters and their interpretation in terms of BSS formation processes are discussed. For the first time, evidence of radiative levitation in the shallow envelopes of BSSs hotter than $\sim$8000 K has been found. C and O depletion for some BSSs has been detected in 47 Tucanae, M30 and $ω$ Centauri thus suggesting a mass transfer origin for these BSSs. The low percentage of CO-depleted BSSs suggests that depletion might be a transient phenomenon.