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Description
Globular clusters have been recognized to host multiple stellar populations. A spectacular example of this is the massive cluster NGC 2808, where multiple populations have been found along the horizontal branch (HB) and the main sequence (MS). Studies of red giants showed that this cluster appears homogeneous insofar Fe abundance is concerned, but it shows an extended anticorrelation between Na and O abundances. The Na-poor, O-rich population can be identified with the red MS, and the Na-rich, O-poor one with the blue one. This may be understood in terms of different He content, He being correlated with Na. A prediction of this scenario is that He-rich, Na-rich He-core burning stars, because they are less massive, will end up on the bluer part of the HB, while He-poor, Na-poor stars will reside on the red HB. The aim of this paper is to verify this prediction. To this purpose, we acquired high-resolution spectra of regions including strong O and Na lines in several tens of HB stars of NGC 2808, sampling both the red and blue parts of the HB.
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