Multiple populations along the asymptotic giant branch of the globular cluster M4

Abstract

Nearly all Galactic globular clusters host stars that display characteristic abundance anticorrelations, like the O-rich/Na-poor pattern typical of field halo stars, together with O-poor/Na-rich additional components. A recent spectroscopic investigation questioned the presence of O-poor/Na-rich stars amongst a sample of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the cluster M4, at variance with the spectroscopic detection of a O-poor/Na-rich component along both the cluster red giant branch (RGB) and horizontal branch. This is contrary to what is expected from the cluster horizontal branch morphology and horizontal branch stellar evolution models. Here, we have investigated this issue by employing the C<SUB>UBI</SUB> = (U - B) - (B - I) index, that previous studies have demonstrated to be very effective in separating multiple populations along both the RGB and AGB sequences. We confirm previous results that the RGB is intrinsically broad in the V-C<SUB>UBI</SUB> diagram, with the presence of two components that nicely correspond to the two populations identified by high-resolution spectroscopy. We find that AGB stars are distributed over a wide range of C<SUB>UBI</SUB> values, in close analogy with what is observed for the RGB, demonstrating that the AGB of M4 also hosts multiple stellar populations.