Related papers: An alternative method to study star cluster disrup…
The early evolution of star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) has been the subject of significant recent controversy, particularly regarding the importance and length of the earliest, largely mass-independent disruption phase…
The age distribution of star clusters in nearby galaxies plays a crucial role in evaluating the lifetimes and disruption mechanisms of the clusters. Two very different results have been found recently for the age distribution chi(t) of…
An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within…
We present a simple analytical description of the disruption of star clusters in a tidal field, which agrees excellently with detailed N-body simulations. The analytic expression can be used to predict the mass and age histograms of…
We review many of the basic properties of star cluster systems, and focus in particular on how they relate to their host galaxy properties and ambient environment. The cluster mass and luminosity functions are well approximated by…
Clusters are the dense inner regions of a wide-spread hierarchy of young stellar structures. They often reveal a continuation of this hierarchy inside of them, to smaller scales, when they are young, but orbital mixing eventually erases…
The analysis of the age distributions of star cluster samples of different galaxies has resulted in two very different empirical models for the dissolution of star clusters: the Baltimore model and the Utrecht model. I describe these two…
We present a new method to derive the cluster disruption time in selected regions of galaxies from the mass or age distribution of magnitude-limited cluster samples. If the disruption time of clusters in a region of a galaxy depends on…
Gas expulsion is a central concept in some of the models for multiple populations and the light-element anticorrelations in globular clusters. If the star formation efficiency was around 30 per cent and the gas expulsion happened on the…
Star clusters are observed to form in a highly compact state and with low star-formation efficiencies, and only 10 per cent of all clusters appear to survive to middle- and old-dynamical age. If the residual gas is expelled on a dynamical…
We study star clusters in two fields in the nearby spiral galaxy M83 using broad and narrow band optical imaging taken with the WFC3 on-board HST. We present results based on several different catalogs of star clusters in an inner and outer…
We review the theory and observations of star cluster disruption. The three main phases and corresponding typical timescales of cluster disruption are: I) Infant Mortality (~10^7 yr), II) Stellar Evolution (~10^8 yr) and III) Tidal…
In this work we concentrate on the evolution of the cluster population of the interacting galaxy M51 (NGC 5194), namely the timescale of cluster disruption and possible variations in the cluster formation rate. We present a method to…
Currently clusters/associations of stars are mainly detected as surface density enhancements relative to the background field. While clusters form, their surface density increases. It likely decreases again at the end of the star formation…
We use archival {\it Hubble Space Telescope} observations of broad-band images from the ultraviolet (F255W-filter) through the near infrared (NICMOS F160W-filter) to study the star cluster population of the interacting spiral galaxy M51. We…
A high number of embedded clusters is found in the Galaxy. Depending on the formation scenario, most of them can evolve to unbounded groups that are dissolved within a few tens of Myr. A systematic study of young stellar clusters showing…
In order to empirically determine the timescale and environmental dependence of stellar cluster disruption, we have undertaken an analysis of the unprecedented multi-pointing (seven), multi-wavelength (U, B, V, H$\alpha$, and I) Hubble…
Some of the youngest stars (age $\lesssim 10$ Myr) are clustered, while many others are observed scattered throughout star forming regions or in complete isolation. It has been intensively debated whether the scattered or isolated stars…
We compare the observed mass functions and age distributions of star clusters in six well-studied galaxies: the Milky Way, Magellanic Clouds, M83, M51, and Antennae. In combination, these distributions span wide ranges of mass and age:…
We combine archival images for the nearby galaxy M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) from the ultraviolet (UV) to the infrared (IR) to derive ages, masses, and extinctions for the young star cluster population, and compare our physical parameters with…