Related papers: Dynamical Processes in Globular Clusters
Large self-gravitating stellar systems share with correlated liquids in condensed matter physics a pattern of hierarchical density variations. While it takes the microscopic time resolution to discern the correlated dynamics of the critical…
We investigate the dynamical formation and evolution of binaries containing neutron stars in dense globular clusters. Our numerical simulations combine a simple Monte Carlo prescription for stellar dynamics, a sophisticated binary…
Blue Straggler stars are present in all the properly observed Globular Clusters. They mimic a rejuvenated stellar population and their existence has been a puzzle for many years. We performed an extensive spectroscopic survey of the surface…
Dynamical models of star clusters are maturing in the sense that effects other than simple point particle dynamics are taken into account. We summarize the relevance of and prospects for this new generation of N-body models.
Most star complexes are in fact complexes of stars, clusters and gas clouds; term "star complexes" was introduced as general one disregarding the preferential content of a complex. Generally the high rate of star formation in a complex is…
The evolution of galaxies results from a combination of internal and external processes. The star formation is an internal process transforming cold and dense cores of molecular clouds to stars. It may be triggered internally by expanding…
Stars and star clusters form by gravoturbulent fragmentation of interstellar gas clouds. The supersonic turbulence ubiquitously observed in Galactic molecular gas generates strong density fluctuations with gravity taking over in the densest…
This chapter explores how we might use the observed {\em statistics} of blue stragglers in globular clusters to shed light on their formation. This means we will touch on topics also discussed elsewhere in this book, such as the discovery…
Blue straggler stars are unique main-sequence stars that appear more luminous, hotter, and therefore younger, than their coeval counterparts. In star clusters, these stars are located above the cluster turn-off in the Hertzsprung-Russell…
We summarize current models of the formation of spheroidal stellar systems. Whereas globular clusters form in an efficient mode of star formation inside turbulent molecular clouds, the origin of galactic spheroids, that is bulges, dwarf…
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.…
In the present-day universe, it appears that most, and perhaps all, massive stars are born in star clusters. It also appears that all star clusters contain stars drawn from an approximately universal initial mass function, so that almost…
Recently, very massive compact stellar systems have been discovered in the intracluster regions of galaxy clusters and in the nuclear regions of late-type disk galaxies. It is unclear how these compact stellar systems -- known as…
Observations and theory both suggest that star clusters form sub-virial (cool) with highly sub-structured distributions. We perform a large ensemble of N-body simulations of moderate-sized (N=1000) cool, fractal clusters to investigate…
Thousands of confirmed and candidate exoplanets have been identified in recent years. Consequently, theoretical research on the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems has seen a boost, and the processes of planet-planet…
It appears that the dynamical status of clusters and groups of galaxies is related to the large-scale structure of the Universe. A few interesting trends have been established: (1) The Cluster Substructure - Alignment Connection, by which…
We use two stellar populations in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae to trace its dynamical history: blue stragglers and low mass main sequence stars. We assumed that the blue stragglers were formed through stellar collisions in all regions of…
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…
We present the results of a comprehensive analysis of the structure and kinematics of six Galactic globular clusters. By comparing the results of the most extensive photometric and kinematical surveys available to date with suited dynamical…
The discovery of planets around PSR~1257+12 suggests that planetary systems may be detected around the recycled pulsars found in globular clusters. Planetary systems in dense clusters have lifetimes to disruption due to perturbations by…