Related papers: Open clusters: probes of galaxy evolution and benc…
For several decades now, open clusters have been used to study the structure and chemical evolution of the disk of our Galaxy. Due to the fact that their ages and metallicities can be determined with relatively good precision, and since…
Open and globular star clusters have served as benchmarks for the study of stellar evolution due to their supposed nature as simple stellar populations of the same age and metallicity. After a brief review of some of the pioneering work…
Old open clusters are useful tools to study the Galactic disk properties, both present and past. Populous samples with properties determined both accurately and homogenously are necessary to draw reliable conclusions. We present here our…
High-mass stars are major players in the chemical and dynamical evolution of galaxies. Open clusters and associations represent the natural laboratories to study their evolution. In this review, I will present a personal selection of…
The evolution of star clusters is studied using N-body simulations in which the evolution of single stars and binaries are taken self-consistently into account. Initial conditions are chosen to represent relatively young Galactic open…
Star clusters and their stellar populations play a significant role in the context of galaxy evolution, across space (from local to high redshift) and time (from currently forming to fossil remnants). We are now within reach of answering a…
It is textbook knowledge that open clusters are conspicuous members of the thin disk of our Galaxy, but their role as contributors to the stellar population of the disk was regarded as minor. Starting from a homogenous stellar sky survey,…
Open clusters and associations are groups of young stars, respectively bound and unbound, that share the same origin and disperse over time into the galactic field. As such, their formation and evolution are the key to understand the origin…
Their ubiquity and extreme densities make star clusters probes of prime importance of galaxy evolution. Old globular clusters keep imprints of the physical conditions of their assembly in the early Universe, and younger stellar objects,…
The study of open clusters has a classic feel to it since the subject predates anyone alive today. Despite the age of this topic, I show via an ADS search that its relevance and importance in astronomy has grown faster in the last few…
White dwarfs (WDs) in open star clusters are a highly useful ensemble of stars. While numerous researchers use open cluster WDs to study the initial-final mass relation, numerous other evolutionary studies are also enabled by this sample of…
Observations have revealed that most stars are born in clusters. These systems, containing from tens to thousands of stars and typically significant mass in gas in the youngest systems, evolve due to a combination of stellar and star-gas…
Blue straggler stars present as secure members in the Galactic open clusters form a major challenge to the conventional picture of evolutionary population synthesis based on the stellar evolution theory of single stars, as illustrated in…
Star clusters are fundamental units of stellar feedback and unique tracers of their host galactic properties. In this review, we will first focus on their constituents, i.e.\ detailed insight into their stellar populations and their…
Star clusters are ideal tracers of star formation activity in systems outside the volume that can be studied using individual, resolved stars. These unresolved clusters span orders of magnitude in brightness and mass, and their formation is…
Based on our compiled catalogue of fundamental astrophysical parameters for 593 open clusters, we analyze the relations between the chemical composition, spatial positions, Galactic orbital elements, age, and other physical parameters of…
This paper addresses the questions of what we have learned about how and when dense star clusters form, and what studies of star clusters have revealed about galaxy formation and evolution. One important observation is that globular…
Stellar Populations are the fossil record of Galactic evolution. Interpretation of this record in the Local Group allows one to determine reliably the dominant physics controlling the evolution of those galaxies which are typical of the…
We present preliminary results of an ongoing survey to probe the physical nature of a sample of open clusters (POCRs, Bica et al. 2001) believed to be in an advanced stage of dynamical evolution. This kind of object is very important to…
We discuss some of the key open questions regarding the formation and evolution of globular clusters (GCs) during galaxy formation and assembly within a cosmological framework. The current state-of-the-art for both observations and…