Related papers: Evidence for Two Distinct Stellar Initial Mass Fun…
We measure the velocity dispersions of six, galactic globular clusters using spatially integrated spectra, to test for the effects of internal dynamical evolution in the stellar mass-to-light ratios, Upsilon_*, of star clusters. In…
We present velocity dispersion measurements of 20 Local Group stellar clusters (7 < log(age [yrs]) < 10.2) from integrated light spectra and examine the evolution of the stellar mass-to-light ratio, Upsilon_*. We find that the clusters…
We present a new technique to quantify cluster-to-cluster variations in the observed present-day stellar mass functions of a large sample of star clusters. Our method quantifies these differences as a function of both the stellar mass and…
We use N-body simulations to model the 12 Gyr evolution of a suite of star clusters with identical initial stellar mass functions over a range of initial cluster masses, sizes, and orbits. Our models reproduce the distribution of…
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…
From a study of the integrated light properties of 200 globular clusters (GCs) in M31, Strader et al. found that the mass-to-light ratios are lower than what is expected from simple stellar population (SSP) models with a `canonical' stellar…
We present internal velocity dispersion determinations from high-resolution spectroscopic observations of a sample of nine globular clusters in M31. Comprehensive numerical simulations are used to show that the typical uncertainty of our…
We investigate the stellar and dynamical mass profiles in the centres of 25 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) at redshifts of 0.05 $\leq z \leq$ 0.30. Our spectroscopy enables us to robustly measure the Gauss-Hermite higher order velocity…
The degree of influence that environment and mass have on the stellar populations of early-type galaxies is uncertain. In this paper we present the results of a spectroscopic analysis of the stellar populations of early-type galaxies aimed…
We have determined the masses and mass-to-light ratios of 50 Galactic globular clusters by comparing their velocity dispersion and surface brightness profiles against a large grid of 900 N-body simulations of star clusters of varying…
Measurements of the surface brightness distribution and of the velocity dispersion profile have been so far used to infer the inner dynamics of globular clusters. We show that those observations do not trace back the dark matter potentially…
We use stellar and dynamical mass profiles, combined with a stellar population analysis, of 32 brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) at redshifts of 0.05 $\leq z \leq$ 0.30, to place constraints on their stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF). We…
We investigate the long-term dynamical evolution of two distinct stellar populations of low-mass stars in globular clusters in order to study whether the energy equipartition process can explain the high number of stars harbouring abundance…
We present a uniform analysis of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) from integrated light spectroscopy of 15 compact stellar systems (11 globular clusters in M31 and 4 ultra compact dwarfs in the Virgo cluster, UCDs) and two brightest…
We study the stellar cluster population in two adjacent fields in the nearby, face-on spiral galaxy, M83, using WFC3/HST imaging. The clusters are selected through visual inspection to be centrally concentrated, symmetric, and resolved on…
A homogeneous sample of galaxy redshifts in the core regions (R < 0.5 h$^{-1}$ Mpc) of 12 clusters is used to measure the frequency of substructure with different tests. In 50 % of the cases substructure is detected, a frequency which…
An essential component of galaxy formation theory is the stellar initial mass function (IMF), that describes the parent distribution of stellar mass in star forming regions. We present observational evidence in a sample of early-type…
We have determined masses, stellar mass functions and structural parameters of 112 Milky Way globular clusters by fitting a large set of N-body simulations to their velocity dispersion and surface density profiles. The velocity dispersion…
We have obtained high-dispersion spectra for four massive star clusters in the dwarf irregular galaxies NGC 4214 and NGC 4449, using the HIRES spectrograph on the Keck I telescope. Combining the velocity dispersions of the clusters with…
This paper explores if, and to what an extent, the stellar populations of early type galaxies can be traced through the colour distribution of their globular cluster systems. The analysis, based on a galaxy sample from the Virgo ACS data,…