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Globular clusters (GCs), the oldest stellar systems observed in the Milky Way, have for long been considered single stellar populations. As such, they provided an ideal laboratory to understand stellar dynamics and primordial star formation…
Based on the earlier work of Gunn and McCrea we model the formation of globular clusters in merging galaxies. Neutral hydrogen observations of dwarf irregular galaxies as well as more luminous systems are used to provide the key parameters…
Binarity among stellar clusters in galaxy is such a reality which has been realized for a long time, but still hides several questions and problems to be solved. Some of binary star clusters are formed by close encounter, but the others are…
Dissipationless (gas-free or "dry") mergers have been suggested to play a major role in the formation and evolution of early-type galaxies, particularly in growing their mass and size without altering their stellar populations. We perform a…
We investigate the formation of the stellar halos of four simulated disk galaxies using high resolution, cosmological SPH + N-Body simulations. These simulations include a self-consistent treatment of all the major physical processes…
The cessation of star formation in galaxies, known as 'quenching', is a complex, multi-scale process which has been theorized to be linked to galaxy mergers. In this paper, we investigate the potential role of mergers in quenching galaxies…
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…
To study the relevance of mergers for the fueling of QSOs, we are currently conducting an HST imaging campaign of a sample of QSO host galaxies classified as ellipticals in the literature. Here, we present results from a study of the first…
The dynamical history of most merging galaxies is not well understood. Correlations between galaxy interaction and star formation have been found in previous studies, but require the context of the physical history of merging systems for…
Mergers of gas-rich galaxies lead to gravitationally driven increases in gas pressure that can trigger intense bursts of star and cluster formation. Although star formation itself is clustered, most newborn stellar aggregates are unbound…
We study resolution effects in numerical simulations of gas-rich and gas-poor major mergers, and show that the formation of slowly-rotating elliptical galaxies often requires a resolution that is beyond the present-day standards to be…
The relativistic time evolution of multi-layer spherically symmetric shell systems---consisting of infinitely thin shells separated by vacuum regions---is examined. Whenever two shells collide the evolution is continued with the assumption…
The absolute magnitude of the brightest galaxy of clusters varies remarkably little and is nearly independent of all other physical properties of the cluster as, e.g., its spatial extension or its richness. The question arises whether the…
We present N-body simulations of elliptical galaxy encounters into dry mergers to study the resulting unbound intergalactic stellar population, in particular that of the post-Main Sequence stars. The systems studied are pairs of spherical…
A series of N-body simulations aimed to study the dynamics of small groups of galaxies are presented. The properties of small galaxy groups are very well reproduced, and those of Hickson's compact groups are well reproduced by the most…
In current $\Lambda$CDM galaxy formation scenarios, at least three physical phenomena could contribute to the mass assembly: monolithic collapse, hierarchical mergers and more quiescent external gas accretion, with secular evolution. The…
The evolution of dense star clusters is followed by direct high-accuracy N-body simulation. The problem is to first order a gravitational N-body problem, but stars evolve due to astrophysics and the more massive ones form black holes or…
We propose a self-consistent model for globular cluster formation in, but not limited to, our Galaxy, based on the merger model of Mathews and Schramm (1993). Stars and star clusters form in bursts at the merging interfaces as protogalactic…
We explore the effects of dissipationless merging on the Fundamental Plane of elliptical galaxies by using a N-body code based on a new, high performance numerical scheme (Dehnen 2002). We investigate the extreme cases of galaxy growth by…
Galaxies are believed to be in one-to-one correspondence with simulated dark matter subhalos. We use high-resolution N-body simulations of cosmological volumes to calculate the statistical properties of subhalo (galaxy) major mergers at…