Related papers: Galactic Nuclei Formation Via Globular Cluster Mer…
We investigate the accretion of globular cluster stars on early cosmological timescales through detailed N-body simulations of theoretical GC models to assess the role of this mechanism in Milky Way-like galaxies. For the dynamical…
We present observations and dynamical models of the stellar nuclear clusters (NCs) at the centres of NGC 4244 and M33. We then compare these to an extensive set of simulations testing the importance of purely stellar dynamical mergers on…
The "gravitational million-body problem," to model the dynamical evolution of a self-gravitating, collisional N-body system with ~10^6 particles over many relaxation times, remains a major challenge in computational astrophysics.…
Many, if not all, galaxies host massive compact objects at their centers. They are present as singularities (super massive black holes) or high density star clusters (nuclear tar clusters). In some cases they coexist, and interact more or…
Clusters of galaxies generally form by the gravitational merger of smaller clusters and groups. Major cluster mergers are the most energetic events in the Universe since the Big Bang. Some of the basic physical properties of mergers will be…
The formation of galaxy clusters in hierarchically clustering universes is investigated by means of high resolution N-body simulations. The simulations are performed using a newly developed multi-mass scheme which combines a PM code with a…
We consider the use of N-body simulations for studying the evolution of rich star clusters (i.e. globular clusters). The dynamical processes included in this study are restricted to gravitational (point-mass) interactions, the steady tidal…
Nuclear stellar cluster (NSCs) are known to exist around massive black holes (MBHs) in galactic nuclei. They are thought to have formed through in-situ star formation following gas inflow to the nucleus of the galaxy and/or through the…
We study the formation of globular clusters (GCs) in a Milky Way-size galaxy using a high-resolution cosmological simulation. The clusters in our model form in the dense cores of supergiant molecular clouds in the gaseous disks of…
In a series of three papers, we introduced a novel cluster formation model that describes the formation, growth, and disruption of star clusters in high-resolution cosmological simulations. We tested this model on a Milky Way-sized galaxy…
Numerical simulations of the dynamical friction suffered by a star cluster near the Galactic center have been performed with a parallelized tree code. Gerhard (2001) has suggested that dynamical friction, which causes a cluster to lose…
We model the effects of collisions and close encounters on the stellar populations observed in the Milky Way nuclear stellar cluster (NSC). Our analysis is based on $N$-body simulations in which the NSC forms by accretion of massive stellar…
The central regions of galaxies show the presence of massive black holes and/or dense stellar systems. The question about their modes of formation is still under debate. A likely explanation of the formation of the central dense stellar…
Galactic globular clusters, which are ancient building blocks of our Galaxy, represent a very interesting family of stellar systems in which some fundamental dynamical processes have taken place on time scales shorter than the age of the…
Clusters of galaxies are merging during the formation of large-scale structures in the Universe. Based on optical survey data, we identify a large sample of pre-mergers of galaxy clusters and merging subclusters in rich clusters. We find…
Astrophysical Challenges which demand the solution of the one million (or more) gravitating body problem are briefly discussed for the fields of cosmology, galactic nuclei and globular star clusters. Results from the classical three-body…
Understanding the formation of globular clusters will help us to constrain the evolutionary history of galaxies. For mergers on-going today, it appears that the number of newly created proto-globulars varies with the progenitor types and…
We present models of realistic globular clusters with post-Newtonian dynamics for black holes. By modeling the relativistic accelerations and gravitational-wave emission in isolated binaries and during three- and four-body encounters, we…
Giant elliptical galaxies, believed to be built from the merger of lesser galaxies, are known to house a massive black hole at their center rather than a compact star cluster. If low- and intermediate-mass galaxies do indeed partake in the…
We examine the mass-dependence of the velocity dispersion of stars in the young cluster NGC 6530 to better understand how it formed. Using a large sample of members we find that the proper motion velocity dispersion increases with stellar…