Red-giant branch temperature and luminosity are very similar at the cool end of the horizontal branch. These stars form the red clump at about 5,000 K and . Less massive hydrogen envelopes cause the stars to take up a hotter and less luminous position on the horizontal branch, and this effect occurs more readily at low metallicity so that old metal-poor clusters show the most pronounced horizontal branches. Stars initially more massive than have non-degenerate helium cores on the red-giant branch. These stars become hot enough to start triple-alpha fusion before they reach the tip of the red-giant branch and before the
Red-giant branch core becomes degenerate. The core still supports its own weight thermodynamically with the help of energy from the hydrogen shell, but is no longer in thermal equilibrium. It shrinks and heats causing the hydrogen shell to become thinner and the stellar envelope to inflate. This combination decreases luminosity as the star cools towards the foot of the RGB. Before the core becomes degenerate, the outer hydrogen envelope becomes opaque which causes the star to stop cooling, increases the rate of fusion in the shell, and the star has entered the RGB. In these stars, the subgiant phase occurs within a