Related papers: Clues to Globular Cluster Evolution from Multiwave…
Globular cluster (GC) systems demonstrate tight scaling relations with the properties of their host galaxies. In previous work, we developed an analytic model for GC formation in a cosmological context and showed that it matches nearly all…
Metal-poor globular clusters (GCs) can provide a probe of the earliest epoch of star formation in the Universe, being the oldest stellar systems observable. In addition, young and intermediate-age low-metallicity GCs are present in external…
We investigate formation processes and physical properties of globular cluster systems (GCSs) in galaxies based on high-resolution cosmological simulations with globular clusters. We focus on metal-poor clusters (MPCs) and correlations with…
It has been a long-standing open question why observed globular cluster (GC) populations of different metallicities differ in their ages and spatial distributions, with metal-poor GCs being the older and radially more extended of the two.…
Chandra observations of distant elliptical galaxies have revealed large numbers of Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) accreting at rates in excess of 10^{-8} solar masses per year. The majority of these LMXBs reside in globular clusters (GCs)…
We studied the metal-poor globular cluster (GC) populations of a large variety of galaxies (47 galaxies spanning about 10mag in absolute brightness) and compared their mean [Fe/H] with the properties of the host galaxies. The mean [Fe/H] of…
In this paper, we are exploring the properties of old, metal-poor globular clusters in galaxies. We investigate whether their properties are related to the properties of their host galaxies, and whether we can constrain their formation. The…
The majority of observed mass-to-light ratios of globular clusters are too low to be explained by `canonical' cluster models, in which dynamical effects are not accounted for. Moreover, these models do not reproduce a recently reported…
There have been several recent claims of black hole binaries in globular clusters. I show that these candidate systems could instead be ultracompact X-ray binaries (UCXBs) in which a neutron star accretes from a white dwarf. They would…
In the context of the Hubble Space Telescope UV Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters (GCs), we derived high-precision, multi-band photometry to investigate the multiple stellar populations in the massive and metal-poor GC M 15. By creating…
Globular clusters (GCs) are astronomical tapestries embroidered with an abundance of exotic stellar-type objects. Their high age promises a rich harvest of evolved stellar products, while the deep potential wells and high mass densities at…
(Abridged) Using luminosities and structural parameters of globular clusters (GCs) in the nuclear regions (nGCs) of low-mass dwarf galaxies from HST/ACS imaging we derive the present-day escape velocities (v_esc) of stellar ejecta to reach…
The connection between mass loss on the red giant branch (RGB) and horizontal branch (HB) morphology in globular clusters (GCs) has long been acknowledged but the mechanisms governing mass loss remains poorly understood from a theoretical…
Recent spectroscopy on the globular cluster (GC) system of M31 with unprecedented precision witnessed a clear bimodality in absorption-line index distributions of old GCs. Such division of extragalactic GCs, so far asserted mainly by…
We present a Chandra survey of LMXBs in 24 early-type galaxies. Correcting for detection incompleteness, the X-ray luminosity function (XLF) of each galaxy is consistent with a powerlaw with negative logarithmic differential slope,…
Improved observations of globular clusters are uncovering a large number of radio pulsars and of X-ray sources. The latter include binaries in which a neutron star or a white dwarf accretes matter from a companion, recycled pulsars, and…
We present HST photometry and Keck spectroscopy of globular clusters (GCs) in the nearby S0 galaxy NGC 7457. The V-I color-magnitude diagram of GCs lacks the clear bimodality present in most early-type galaxies; there may be a significant…
The mean color of globular clusters (GCs) in early-type galaxies is in general bluer than the integrated color of halo field stars in host galaxies. Metal-rich GCs often appear more associated with field stars than metal-poor GCs, yet show…
We study the azimuthal distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in early-type galaxies and compare them to their host galaxies using data from the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. We find that in host galaxies with visible elongation (epsilon >…
The observed mass-to-light (M/L) ratios of globular clusters (GCs) are on average ~20% lower than expected from Simple Stellar Population (SSP) models, which only account for the effects of stellar evolution. We study the M/L ratio…