Horizontal branch stars in 47 Tuc and M5

Considering the selection effects in our sample (which does not include stars warmer than 11000K and RR Lyrae variables, which were excluded because we could not obtain accurate abundances with the adopted observing procedure) is important to understand our results for M5. In this case, we find that, as expected, RHB stars are Na-poor and O-rich, and likely belong to the primordial population. There is a clear correlation of the [Na/O] ratio and N abundance with colour along the BHB.

A derivation of the He abundance for these stars yields a low value of Y=0.22+/-0.03. This is expected because HB stars of a putative He-rich population in this cluster should be warmer than 11000K, and would accordingly not have been sampled by our analysis. However, we need some additional source of scatter in the total mass loss of stars climbing up the red giant branch to reproduce our results for M5.

Finally, we found a C-star on the HB of 47Tuc and a Ba-rich, fast-rotating, likely binary star on the HB of M5. These stars are among the brightest and coolest HB stars.