A photometric in-depth look at the core-collapsed globular cluster NGC 6284

Abstract

High-resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical observations have been used to perform the deepest photometric study of the poorly studied Galactic globular cluster NGC 6284. The deep colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) that we obtained reaches 6 mag below the main-sequence turnoff. We provide the first determination of the gravitational centre (Cgrav) and density profile of the system from resolved stars. We note that the gravitational centre is significantly offset (by 1.5-3″) from the values in the literature. The density profile shows the presence of a steep central cusp, unambiguously indicating that the cluster experienced the core-collapse phase. Updated values of the structural parameters and relaxation times of the system are provided. We also constructed the first high-resolution reddening map in the cluster direction, which allowed us to correct the evolutionary sequences in the CMD for the effects of differential reddening. Isochrone fitting to the corrected CMD provided us with new estimates of the cluster age, average colour excess, metallicity, and distance. We find an absolute age of 13.3 ± 0.4 Gyr, an average colour excess E(B-V) = 0.32 ± 0.01, a metallicity [Fe/H] = -1.36 ± 0.01, and a true distance modulus (m-M)0 = 15.61 ± 0.04 that sets the cluster distance at 13.2 ± 0.2 kpc from the Sun. The superb quality of the CMD allowed a clear-cut identification of the red giant branch (RGB) bump, which is clearly distinguishable along the narrow RGB. The absolute magnitude of this feature turns out to be ∼0.2 mag fainter than the previous identification.