Multimodal Distributions along the Horizontal Branch

Abstract

We report on HST/WFPC2 U,V and far-ultraviolet observations of two Galactic Globular Clusters (GGCs), NGC 6205 = M13 and NGC 6093 = M80. Both of these clusters have horizontal-branch (HB) tails that extend to the helium-burning main sequence, with the hottest stars reaching theoretical effective temperatures above 35,000 K. In both clusters, groups of stars are found to be separated by narrow gaps along the blue HB sequence. These gaps appear at similar locations in the color-magnitude diagrams of the two clusters. While stochastic effects may give rise to variations in the color distribution along the HB, the coincidence of gaps in different clusters effectively rules this out as the primary cause. The comparison among the clusters strongly suggests that there are separate physical processes operating during the earlier red-giant phase of evolution to produce mass loss.