The predicted properties of helium-enriched globular cluster progenitors at high redshift

Abstract

Globular cluster progenitors may have been detected by Hubble Space Telescope, and are predicted to be observable with James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and ground-based extremely large telescopes with adaptive optics. This has the potential to elucidate the issue of globular cluster formation and the origins of significantly helium-enriched subpopulations, a problem in Galactic astronomy with no satisfactory theoretical solution. Given this context, we use model stellar tracks and isochrones to investigate the predicted observational properties of helium-enriched stellar populations in globular cluster progenitors. We find that, relative to helium-normal populations, helium-enriched (Y = +0.12) stellar populations similar to those inferred in the most massive globular clusters, are expected, modulo some rapid fluctuations in the first ∼30 Myr, to be brighter and redder in the rest frame. At fixed age, stellar mass, and metallicity, a helium-enriched population is predicted to converge to being ∼0.40 mag brighter at λ ≈ 2.0 μm, and to be 0.30-mag redder in the JWST–NIRCam colour (F070W − F200W), and to actually be fainter for λ 0.50 μm. Separately, we find that the time-integrated shift in ionizing radiation is a negligible ∼ 5 per cent, though we show that the Lyman-α escape fraction could end up higher for helium-enriched stars.