Extreme Horizontal Bran h Stars

A review is presented on the properties, origin and evolutionary links of hot subluminous stars which are generally believed to be extreme Horizontal Branch stars or closely related objects. They exist both in the disk and halo populations (globular clusters) of the Galaxy. Amongst the field stars a large fraction of sdBs are found to reside in close binaries. The companions are predominantly white dwarfs, but also low mass main sequence stars are quite common. Systems with sufficiently massive white dwarf companions may qualify as Supernova Ia progenitors. Recently evidence has been found that the masses of some unseen companions might exceed the Chandrasekhar mass, hence they must be neutron stars or black holes. Even a planet has recently been detected orbiting the pulsating sdB star V391 Peg. Quite to the opposite, in globular clusters, only very few sdB binaries are found indicating that the dominant sdB formation processes is different in a dense environment. Binary population synthesis models identify three formation channels, (i) stable Roche lobe overflow, (ii) one or two common envelope ejection phases and (iii) the merger of two helium white dwarfs. The latter channel may explain the properties of the He-enriched subluminous O stars, the hotter sisters of the sdB stars, because their binary fraction is lower than that of the sdBs by a factor of ten or more. The rivalling ”late hot flasher” scenario is also discussed. Pulsating subluminous B (sdB) stars play an important role for asteroseismology as this technique has already led to mass determinations for a handful of stars. A unique hyper-velocity sdO star moving so fast that it is unbound to the Galaxy has probably been ejected by the super-massive black hole in the Galactic centre.