Seminar
Multiple Stellar Populations & Horizontal Branch Stars in Galactic Globular Clusters: firm evidence, (apparent) anomalies and current shortcomings

Abstract

Since the early 50' of last century the study of Horizontal Branch stars in Galactic GCs has been of pivotal relevance since the core He-burning stage is an 'amplifier' of any evolutionary/physical process occurring during the early evolutionary stages. Thanks to the huge observational effort devoted to this issue many outstanding 'anomalies' have been discovered concerning the physical properties of GC HB stars. The situation is becoming more complex when accounting for the discovery of the Multiple Population phenomenon in Galactic GCs. We will review the main anomalies related to the HB evolutionary stage, their (when available) theoretical interpretations, and current shortcomings. We will also discuss how the discovery of the Multiple Population Phenomenon offers a new approach for interpreting many observational evidence.