The Formation Rate of Blue Stragglers in 47 Tucanae
Abstract
We investigate the effects of changes in the blue straggler formation rate in
globular clusters on the blue straggler distribution in the color-magnitude
diagram. We find that the blue straggler distribution is highly sensitive to
the past formation rate. Comparing our models to new UBV observations of a
region close to the core of 47 Tucanae suggests that this cluster may have
stopped forming blue straggler formation several Gyr ago. This cessation of
formation can be associated with an epoch of primordial binary burning which
has been invoked in other clusters to infer the imminence of core collapse.