Related papers: Anomalous globular clusters: insights from neutron…
Globular clusters (GCs) are spheroidal concentrations typically containing of the order of 10^5 to 10^6, predominantly old, stars. Historically, they have been considered as the closest counterparts of the idealized concept of "simple…
In this short communication we consider the possibility that stars less evolved than the polluters are the source of the dilution needed to explain the observed composition of second-generation globular cluster (GC) stars and the Na-O and…
The Hubble Space Telescope photometric survey of Galactic globular clusters (GCs) has revealed a peculiar "chromosome map" for NGC6934. Besides a typical sequence, similar to that observed in Type I GCs, NGC 6934 displays additional stars…
This paper explores if the mean properties of Early-Type Galaxies (ETG) can be reconstructed from "genetic" information stored in their GCs (i.e., in their chemical abundances, spatial distributions and ages). This approach implies that the…
Globular clusters display significant variations in their light-element content, pointing to the existence of a second stellar generation formed from the ejecta of an earlier generation. The nature of these internal polluters is still a…
We suggest that "$G$ objects" recently discovered in the Galactic Center may be clouds of gas bound by the gravitational field of stellar-mass black holes produced in the interactions of sublunar primordial black holes with neutron stars.…
Clusters of galaxies are massive enough to be considered representative samples of the Universe, and to retain all of the heavy elements synthesized in their constituent stars. Since most of these metals reside in hot plasma, X-ray…
In this paper, we recall various features of non equilibrium granular systems. Clusters with specific properties are found depending on the packing density, going from loose (a granular gas) to sintered (though brittle) polycrystalline…
Globular clusters were thought to be simple stellar populations, but recent photometric and spectroscopic evidence suggests that the clusters' early formation history was more complicated. In particular, clusters show star-to-star abundance…
The formation of stars with light-element abundance variations in globular clusters and the subsequent dynamical evolution of these multiple populations remains an open question. One of the most widely discussed is the AGB scenario, in…
(abridged) Observations of very high speeds among pulsars in the Galactic disk present a puzzle regarding neutron stars in globular clusters. The inferred characteristic speed of single pulsars in the Galaxy is $\sim 5-10$ times as large as…
Globular clusters have long been known to contain large excesses of a variety of objects formed through dynamical processes. The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in our knowledge about these systems.
Despite their shared origin, members of globular clusters display star-to-star variations in composition. The observed pattern of element abundances is unique to these stellar environments, and cannot be fully explained by any proposed…
Recent investigations of the double red clump in the color-magnitude diagram of the Milky Way bulge cast serious doubts on the structure and formation origin of the outer bulge. Unlike previous interpretation based on an X-shaped bulge,…
We present new abundance observations of neutron-capture elements in Galactic stars. These include new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) detections of the elements Ge, Zr and Pt in a group of 11 halo stars. Correlations between these elements…
Neutron-capture elements, those with Z > 35, are the least well-understood in terms of nucleosynthesis and formation environments. The rapid neutron-capture, or r-process, elements are formed in the environments and/or remnants of massive…
Heavy elements, those produced by neutron-capture reactions, have traditionally shown no star-to-star dispersion in all but a handful of metal-poor globular clusters (GCs). Recent detections of low [Pb/Eu] ratios or upper limits in several…
We present an automated statistical method that uses medium-resolution spectroscopic observations of a set of stars to select those that show evidence of possessing significant amounts of neutron-capture elements. Our tool was tested…
We investigate the multiple stellar populations in one of peculiar globular clusters (GCs) M22 using new ground-based wide-field Ca by and HST/WFC3 photometry with equivalent passbands, confirming our previous result that M22 has a…
We outline a method to measure the detailed chemical composition of extragalactic (unresolved) globular clusters (GCs) from echelle spectra of their integrated light. Our goal is to use this method to measure abundance patterns of GCs in…