Abstract:
We report the discovery of extremely low mass white dwarfs (ELM WDs) as a companion of blue straggler stars
(BSSs) in the Galactic globular cluster NGC 362 using images from AstroSatʼs Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope
(UVIT). Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 26 far-UV (FUV) bright member BSSs are created using data
from the UVIT, the UltraViolet and Optical Telescope (UVOT), Gaia EDR3, and the 2.2 m ESO/MPI telescope. A
single SED is fitted to 14 BSSs, whereas double-SED fits revealed ELM WDs as binary companions in 12 of the 26
BSSs studied. The effective temperature, radius, luminosity, and mass of the 12 ELM WDs are found to have a
range of Teff = 9750−18,000 K, R = 0.1−0.4 Re, L = 0.4−3.3 Le, and M = 0.16−0.20 Me. These suggest that 12
BSSs are post-mass-transfer systems formed through the case A/B mass transfer pathway. To the best of our
knowledge, this is the first finding of ELM WDs as companions to BSSs in globular clusters. This cluster is known
to have a binary BSS sequence, and the 12 binary and 14 single BSSs (as classified by the SEDs) follow the mass
transfer and collisional sequence of BSSs in the color–magnitude diagram. The cooling ages of nine of the ELM
WDs are found to be younger than 500 Myr. Though the binary BSSs may have formed during the core collapse
(∼200 Myr) or as part of the dynamical evolution of the cluster, they provide new insights on the dynamics of this
cluster.
