Ecology of Blue Straggler Stars [Paperback]

The existence of blue straggler stars, which appear younger, hotter, and more massive than their siblings, is at odds with a simple picture of stellar evolution. Such stars should have exhausted their nuclear fuel and evolved long ago to become cooling white dwarfs. They are found to exist in globular clusters, open clusters, dwarf spheroidal galaxies of the Local Group, OB associations and as field stars.

This book summarises the many advances in observational and theoretical work dedicated to blue straggler stars. Carefully edited extended contributions by well-known experts in the field cover all the relevant aspects of blue straggler stars research: Observations of blue straggler stars in their various environments; Binary stars and formation channels; Dynamics of globular clusters; Interpretation of observational data and comparison with models. The book also offers an introductory chapter on stellar evolution written by the editors of the book.

Field Blue Straggler Stars and Related Mass Transfer Issues.- Blue Stragglers Stars as Probe-Particles of Cluster Internal Dynamics. An Observational Prospective.- Blue Straggler Stars in Nearby Dwarf Galaxies: a Hard Quest.- Dynamical Evolution of Globular Clusters.- Binary Evolution: Wind Mass Transfer.- Binary Evolution: Roche Lobe Overflow.- Blue Straggler Formation in Open Clusters.- Formation Channels for Blue Straggler Stars.- The Multiple Origin of Blue Straggler Stars.- Interpretations of Observations  Individual Stellar Properties.- Blue Straggler Stars in Globular Clusters: Observations, Statistics and Physics.- Stellar Population Modeling Including BSS.

The book is definitely to be welcomedas a much-needed contribution to the study of stellar physics. It should be inevery departmental library. (Elizabeth Griffin, The Observatory, Vol. 135(1249), December, 2015)

Henri Boffin has been an ESO Paranal Operations Staff Astronomer since August 2010. ls4