Related papers: The Main Sequence of Star Clusters
Mass segregation is seen in many star clusters, but whether massive stars form in the center of a cluster or migrate there dynamically is still debated. N-body simulations have shown that early dynamical mass segregation is possible when…
Most stars form in highly clustered environments within molecular clouds, but eventually disperse into the distributed stellar field population. Exactly how the stellar distribution evolves from the embedded stage into gas-free associations…
Applying the mean surface density of companions, Sigma(r), to the dynamical evolution of star clusters is an interesting approach to quantifying structural changes in a cluster. It has the advantage that the entire density structure,…
We study the degree of angular substructure in the stellar position distribution of young members of Galactic star-forming regions, looking for correlations with distance from cluster center, surface number density of stars, and local…
Stars form with a complex and highly structured distribution. For a smooth star cluster to form from these initial conditions, the star cluster must erase this substructure. We study how substructure is removed using N-body simulations that…
More and more observations indicate that young star clusters could retain imprints of their formation process. In particular, the degree of substructuring and rotation are possibly the direct result of the collapse of the parent molecular…
This paper investigates the dynamical evolution of embedded stellar clusters from the protocluster stage, through the embedded star-forming phase, and out to ages of 10 Myr -- after the gas has been removed from the cluster. The relevant…
We investigate the evolution of binary fractions in star clusters using N-body models of up to 100000 stars. Primordial binary frequencies in these models range from 5% to 50%. Simulations are performed with the NBODY4 code and include a…
We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations for the dynamical evolution of star clusters containing two stellar populations with individual masses m1 and m2 > m1, and total masses M1 and M2 < M1. We use both King and Plummer model…
In this thesis we study several aspects of dynamical evolution of stellar clusters. The results of more than 200 simulations of single-mass star clusters with different initial total mass, half-mass radius and galactocentric distance, are…
We introduce version two of the fast star cluster evolution code Evolve Me A Cluster of StarS (EMACSS). The first version (Alexander & Gieles) assumed that cluster evolution is balanced for the majority of the life-cycle, meaning that the…
[abridged] We extend our analysis of the dynamical evolution of simple star cluster models, in order to provide comparison standards that will aid in interpreting the results of more complex realistic simulations. We augment our previous…
The study of the internal structure of star clusters provides important clues concerning their formation mechanism and dynamical evolution. There are both observational and numerical evidences indicating that open clusters evolve from an…
Star clusters in isothermal spheres are studied from a thermodynamic point of view. New density profiles are presented, that describe the collapsed phase at low temperatures. At the transition a set of binaries is formed that carries 13 %…
Binary stars are thought to be a controlling factor in globular cluster evolution, since they can heat the environmental stars by converting their binding energy to kinetic energy during dynamical interactions. Through such interaction, the…
We review progress in numerical simulations of star cluster formation. These simulations involve the bottom-up assembly of clusters through hierarchical mergers, which produces a fractal stellar distribution at young (~0.5 Myr) ages. The…
This chapter reviews the dynamical processes in young stellar clusters. The accretion of gas by individual stars affects the dynamics of the cluster, and the masses of the stars. Dynamical mass segregation cannot explain the degree of mass…
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…
We discuss the observations and theory of star cluster formation to argue that clusters form dynamically cool (subvirial) and with substructure. We then perform an ensemble of simulations of cool, clumpy (fractal) clusters and show that…
We use N-body simulations to explore the influence of orbital eccentricity on the dynamical evolution of star clusters. Specifically we compare the mass loss rate, velocity dispersion, relaxation time, and the mass function of star clusters…