Modeling the radial distribution of blue stragglers in M 3

Recent surveys of the blue straggler (BS) population in the galactic globular cluster M3 (NGC 5272) give the rst complete characterization of the number density of BSs as a function of radius over an entire globular cluster. The BSs in M3 are overabundant at large radii, and signiicantly underabundant at intermediate radii. Here we present the result of a simulation of the dynamical evolution of a population of BSs in a multi{mass model of M3. Assuming the BSs were formed in the core through binary interactions some very general assumptions about the recoil that occurs during stellar mergers in interacting binaries; we nd an excellent t to the observed radial distribution of BSs, suggesting strongly that most of the BSs in M3 were formed through binary collisions in the core.