On the self-enrichment scenario of galactic globular clusters: constraints on the IMF

Aims.Galactic globular cluster (GC) stars exhibit abundance patterns that are not shared by their field counterparts, e.g. the well-documented O-Na and Mg-Al anticorrelations. Recent spectroscopic observations of GC turnoff stars have provided compelling evidence that these abundance anomalies were already present in the gas from which the observed stars formed. A widely held hypothesis is that the gas was “polluted” by stars that were more massive (and evolving faster) than the presently observed low-mass stars. In the framework of this “self-enrichment” scenario for GCs, we present a new method of deriving the initial mass function (IMF) of the polluters, by using the O/Na abundance distribution.