The RR Lyrae "gap" and Horizontal Branch Morphology
Globular cluster CMDs generally show horizontal branches that have a prominent gap in the HB. This gap in the CMD incorrectly suggests that the cluster has no stars in this region of its CMD. The gap occurs at the instability strip, so many stars in this region pulsate. These pulsating horizontal branch stars are known as RR Lyrae variable stars and they are obviously variable in brightness with periods of up to 1.2 days . It requires an extended observing program to establish the star's true (that is, averaged over a full period) apparent magnitude and color. Such a program is usually beyond the scope of an investigation of a cluster's color-magnitude diagram. Because of this, while the variable stars are noted in tables of a cluster's stellar content from such an investigation, these variable stars are not included in the graphic presentation of the cluster CMD because data adequate to plot them correctly are unavailable. This omission often results in the RR Lyrae gap seen in many published globular cluster CMDs.
Different globular clusters often display different HB morphologies, by which is meant that the relative proportions of HB stars existing blue of the RR Lyr gap, within the gap, and to the red of the gap varies sharply from cluster to cluster. The underlying cause of different HB morphologies is a long-standing problem in stellar astrophysics. Chemical composition is one factor (usually in the sense that more metal-poor clusters have bluer HBs), but other stellar properties like age, rotation and helium content have also been suggested as affecting HB morphology. This has sometimes been called the "Second Parameter Problem" for globular clusters, because there exist pairs of globular clusters which seem to have the same metallicity yet have very different HB morphologies; one such pair is NGC 288 (which has a very blue HB) and NGC 362 (which has a rather red HB). The label "second parameter" acknowledges that some unknown physical effect is responsible for HB morphology differences in clusters that seem otherwise identical.
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