Related papers: Early dynamical evolution of star cluster systems
Massive stars form in clusters within self-gravitating molecular clouds. The size scale of these clusters is sufficiently large that non-thermal, or turbulent, motions of the gas must be taken into account when considering their formation.…
Galaxies in clusters are gas-deficient and a number of possible explanations for this observation have been advanced, including galaxy-cluster tidal interactions, galaxy harassment, and ISM-ICM gas stripping. In this paper, we use a…
Some young star clusters show a degree of mass segregation that is inconsistent with the effects of standard two-body relaxation from an initially unsegregated system without substructure, in virial equilibrium, and it is unclear whether…
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…
Runaway stellar collisions in dense star clusters are invoked to explain the presence of very massive stars or blue stragglers in the center of those systems. This process has also been explored for the first star clusters in the Universe…
The observed morphological evolution since z ~ 0.5 within galaxy clusters provides evidence for a hierarchical universe. This evolution is driven by dynamical effects that operate within the cluster environment -- suppression of…
Even today in our Galaxy, stars form from gas cores in a variety of environments, which may affect the properties of resulting star and planetary systems. Here we study the role of pressure, parameterized via ambient clump mass surface…
Cloud environment is thought to play a critical role in determining the mechanism of formation of massive stars. In this contribution we review the physical characteristics of the environment around recently formed massive stars. Particular…
We simulate the dynamics of fractal star clusters, in order to investigate the evolution of substructure in recently formed clusters. The velocity dispersion is found to be the key parameter determining the survival of substructure. In…
We performed N-body simulations of both individual cluster evolution and subcluster coalescence, demonstrating that cluster evolution and its outcomes strongly depend on the cluster formation process through comparisons of different gas…
Infant mortality brought about by the expulsion of a star cluster's natal gas is widely invoked to explain cluster statistics at different ages. While a well studied problem, most recent studies of gas expulsion's effect on a cluster have…
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…
Studies of evolved massive stars indicate that they form in a clustered mode. During the earliest evolutionary stages, these regions are embedded within their natal cores. Here, we show high-spatial-resolution interferometric dust continuum…
Early expansion plays a fundamental role in the dynamical evolution of young star clusters. However, until very recently most of our understanding of cluster expansion was based only on indirect evidence or on statistically limited samples…
In the first part of this article, we review observations of the mass and luminosity functions of young and old star cluster systems. We also review some of the physical processes that may determine the characteristic mass of globular…
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…
We examine the effects of gas expulsion on initially sub-structured and out-of-equilibrium star clusters. We perform $N$-body simulations of the evolution of star clusters in a static background potential before removing that potential to…
The discovery of young globular clusters in merging galaxies and other environments provides an opportunity to study directly the process of globular cluster formation. Empirically it appears that globular cluster formation occurs…
Star formation is spatially clustered across a range of environments, from dense stellar clusters to unbound associations. As a result, radiative or dynamical interactions with neighbouring stars disrupt (proto)planetary systems and limit…
We investigate whether the dynamical status of clusters is related to the large-scale structure of the Universe. We find that cluster substructure is strongly correlated with the tendency of clusters to be aligned with their nearest…