Related papers: The Baltimore and Utrecht models for cluster disso…
Star clusters - open and globulars - experience dynamical evolution on time scales shorter than their age. Consequently, open and globular clusters provide us with unique dynamical laboratories for learning about two-body relaxation, mass…
We have carried out a large set of N-body simulations studying the effect of residual-gas expulsion on the survival rate and final properties of star clusters. We have varied the star formation efficiency, gas expulsion timescale and…
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…
Recent observational studies of the age distribution of star clusters in nearby merging galaxies and starburst (SB) galaxies indicate a premature death of the young clusters. The fate of an evolving star cluster crucially depends of its gas…
In order to explain the spectroscopic observations of most of the galaxies in intermediate redshift clusters, bursts of star formation superimposed to the traditional scenario of galactic evolution are needed. The analysis of spectral lines…
We re-analyze the age distribution (dN/dt) of star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) using age determinations based on the Magellanic Cloud Photometric Survey. For ages younger than 3x10^9 yr the dN/dt distribution can be…
We study the stellar cluster population in two adjacent fields in the nearby, face-on spiral galaxy, M83, using WFC3/HST imaging. The clusters are selected through visual inspection to be centrally concentrated, symmetric, and resolved on…
Using multi-wavelength imaging from the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope we study the stellar cluster populations of two adjacent fields in the nearby face-on spiral galaxy, M83. The observations cover the galactic centre…
The evolution of star clusters is determined by several internal and external processes. Here we focus on two dominant internal effects, namely energy exchange between stars through close encounters (two-body relaxation) and mass-loss of…
It is often argued that young stellar clusters suffer a significant infant mortality that is partly related to the expulsion of dust and gas in their early phases caused by radiation pressure from hot stars and supernovae. Near-infrared…
We study the effects of initial conditions of star clusters and their massive star population on dynamical ejections of massive stars from star clusters up to an age of 3 Myr. We use a large set of direct N-body calculations for moderately…
What is the difference between a long-lived unstable (or quasi-stable) multiple star system and a bona fide star cluster? In this paper, we present a possible framework to address this question, by studying the distributions of disruption…
We developed a method for a fast modeling of broad-band UBVRI integrated magnitudes of unresolved star clusters and used it to derive their physical parameters (age, mass, and extinction). The method was applied on M33 galaxy cluster sample…
Most stars form as part of a star cluster. The most massive clusters in the Milky Way exist in two groups - loose and compact clusters - with significantly different sizes at the end of the star formation process. After their formation both…
The age distributions of stellar cluster populations have long been proposed to probe the recent formation history of the host galaxy. However, progress is hampered by the limited understanding of cluster disruption by evaporation and tidal…
We describe the interplay between stellar evolution and dynamical mass loss of evolving star clusters, based on the principles of stellar evolution and cluster dynamics and on a grid of N-body simulations of cluster models. The cluster…
We predict the survival time of initially bound star clusters in the solar neighbourhood taking into account: (1) stellar evolution, (2) tidal stripping, (3) shocking by spiral arms and (4) encounters with giant molecular clouds. We find…
We investigate the properties and evolution of star particles in two simulations of isolated spiral galaxies, and two galaxies from cosmological simulations. Unlike previous numerical work, where typically each star particle represents one…
We have studied the dissolution of initially mass segregated and unsegregated star clusters due to two-body relaxation in external tidal fields, using Aarseth's collisional N-body code NBODY4 on GRAPE6 special-purpose computers. When…
We examine the luminosity and dynamical mass estimates for young massive stellar clusters. For many young (<50 Myr) clusters, the luminosity and dynamical mass estimates differ by a significant amount. We explain this as being due to many…