Formation of globular clusters in galaxy mergers
Abstract
Our numerical simulations first demonstrate that the pressure of ISM in a major merger becomes so high ( K ) that GMCs in the merger can collapse to form globular clusters (GCs) within a few Myr. The star formation efficiency within a GMC in galaxy mergers can rise up from a few percent to 80 percent, depending on the shapes and the temperature of the GMC. This implosive GC formation due to external high pressure of warm/hot ISM can be more efficient in the tidal tails or the central regions of mergers. The developed clusters have King-like profile with the effective radius of a few pc. The structural, kinematical, and chemical properties of these GC systems can depend on orbital and chemical properties of major mergers.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0308263,
title = {Formation of globular clusters in galaxy mergers},
author = {Kenji Bekki and Warrick J. Couch and Duncan A. Forbes and M. A. Beasley},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0308263},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
2 pages 1 figure (color), in the proceedings of Extragalactic Globular clusters and their host galaxies (JD6 in IAU)