Blue Straggler Stars in Galactic Open Clusters and the Simple Stellar Population Model

Abstract

Blue straggler stars present as secure members in the Galactic open clusters form a major challenge to the conventional picture of evolutionary population synthesis based on the stellar evolution theory of single stars, as illustrated in our previous work. Expansion of our sample in the current work to include younger age clusters provides a larger data base to expose the question raised for the simple stellar population model. The working sample now includes 97 Galactic open clusters of ages ranging from 0.1 to several Gyrs. The contributions of blue straggler stars to the integrated light of the host clusters are calculated on an individual cluster base. A data base of observational constrained simple stellar population model is made which has a larger age coverage than our previous work. It is shown in this work that the general existence of blue stragglers in star clusters of our sample dramatically altered the predictions of convectional stellar population model in terms of spectral energy distribution. The integrated spectral energy distributions of the synthetic spectra of the clusters are enhanced towards shorter wavelengths, therefore the results of the present work will cast new lights in understanding the properties of stellar populations.