Evolution of the remnants of stellar collisions

Abstract

Collisions between stars occur naturally in star clusters. The outcome of such collisions is a new single star that may have peculiar properties that affect its subsequent evolution. For low mass stars, such merger events are a possible formation channel for blue straggler stars, stars more massive than expected for a starcluster of a given age. For high mass stars, such a merger can result in the production of blue supergiants. If circumstances are right, repeated collisions between stars may produce very massive stars (with a mass of 100-1000 solar masses).