Related papers: What do dynamical cluster masses really tell us ab…
We provide a review of the current status of several topics on the ages, distances, and mass functions of open clusters, with a particular emphasis on illuminating the areas of uncertainty. Hipparcos has obtained parallaxes for nearby open…
Observations of young star clusters in a variety of galaxies have been used to constrain basic properties related to star-formation, such as the fraction of stars found in clusters (Gam) and the shape of the cluster mass function. However,…
Internal dynamical evolution can drive stellar systems into states of high central density. For many star clusters and galactic nuclei, the time scale on which this occurs is significantly less than the age of the universe. As a result,…
We review recent work that investigates the formation of stellar clusters, ranging in scale from globular clusters through open clusters to the small scale aggregates of stars observed in T associations. In all cases, recent advances in…
The star formation, mass assembly and chemical enrichment histories of galaxies, and their present distributions of dark matter, remain encoded in their stellar populations. Distinguishing the actual distribution functions of stellar age,…
High-mass stars are major players in the chemical and dynamical evolution of galaxies. Open clusters and associations represent the natural laboratories to study their evolution. In this review, I will present a personal selection of…
We use the Millennium Simulation series to study how the dynamical state of dark matter halos affects the relation between mass and concentration. We find that a large fraction of massive systems are identified when they are substantially…
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…
(abridged) The old Star Cluster (SC) systems surrounding any sofar investigated galaxy represent a powerful tool for the understanding of the cosmological evolution of their host galaxies. Phases of enhanced cluster formation can be…
We study the relationship between the field star formation and cluster formation properties in a large sample of nearby dwarf galaxies. We use optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope and from ground-based telescopes to derive the ages…
Context: A recent new approach to apply a simple dynamical mass estimate of tidally limited star clusters is based on the identification of the tidal radius in a King profile with the dynamical Jacobi radius. The application to an unbiased…
Star clusters are ideal tracers of star formation activity in systems outside the volume that can be studied using individual, resolved stars. These unresolved clusters span orders of magnitude in brightness and mass, and their formation is…
In previous papers of the series we used a combination of optical and near-infrared colours to derive constraints on the relative age structure in globular cluster systems. Here, we present the details, strength and limitations of our…
This review discusses (i) dynamical methods for determining the masses of Galactic and extragalactic star clusters, (ii) dynamical processes and their time-scales for the evolution of clusters, including evaporation, mass segregation, core…
Mass segregation is observed in many star clusters, including several that are less than a few Myr old. Timescale arguments are frequently used to argue that these clusters must be displaying primordial segregation, because they are too…
This article reviews some recent studies of the mass, age, and space distributions of star clusters, with a primary focus on the large population of clusters in the interacting Antennae galaxies. Some of the highlights of these studies are…
Star clusters are evolving n-body systems. We discuss the early dynamics of star clusters, the process of primordial mass segregation and clustering observed in certain young clusters. We discuss how the dynamics coupled with stellar…
A large sample of young stellar groups is analysed aiming to investigate their clustering properties and dynamical evolution. A comparison of the Q statistical parameter, measured for the clusters, with the fractal dimension estimated for…
I review our understanding of classic dynamical scaling relations, relating luminosity, size and kinematics of early-type galaxies. Using unbiased determinations of galaxy mass profiles from stellar dynamical models, a simple picture has…
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…