On the absence of symbiotic stars in globular clusters

Understand

Even though plenty of symbiotic stars (SySts) have been found in the Galactic field and nearby galaxies, not a single one has ever been confirmed in a Galactic globular cluster (GC).

• We investigate the lack of such systems in GCs for the first time by analysing 144 GC models evolved with the MOCCA code, which have different initial properties and are roughly representative of the Galactic GC population.
• We focus here on SySts formed through the wind-accretion channel, which can be consistently modelled in binary population synthesis codes.
• We found that the orbital periods of the majority of such SySts are sufficiently long (${\gtrsim10^3}$ d) so that, for very dense GC models, dynamical interactions play an important role in destroying their progenitors before the present day (${\sim11-12}$ Gyr).