Related papers: Globular Cluster Streams as Galactic High-Precisio…
Galactic globular clusters are ancient building blocks of our Galaxy. They represent a very interesting family of stellar systems in which some fundamental dynamical processes have been taking place for more than 10 Gyr, but on time scales…
Observations of the lengthy tidal streams produced by the destruction of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal (Sgr dSph) are capable of providing strong constraints on the shape of the Galactic gravitational potential. However, previous work,…
We present a new method for determining the Galactic gravitational potential based on forward modeling of tidal stellar streams. We use this method to test the performance of smooth and static analytic potentials in representing realistic…
Extremely rich populations of globular clusters, numbering ten thousand or more, surround the central giant galaxies in rich clusters. I discuss some recent spectroscopic and photometric observations of these rich globular clusters…
Tidal streams provide a powerful tool by means of which the matter distribution of the dark matter halos of their host galaxies can be studied. However, the analysis is not straightforward because streams do not delineate orbits, and for…
Mergers and tidal interactions between massive galaxies and their dwarf satellites are a fundamental prediction of the Lambda-Cold Dark Matter cosmology. These events are thought to influence galaxy evolution throughout cosmic history and…
Dynamical friction and tidal disruption are effective mechanisms of evolution of globular cluster systems, especially in non-axysimmetric galaxies with a central compact nucleus. With a semi-analytical approach based on the knowledge of the…
Globular clusters provide a unique probe of galaxy formation and evolution. Here I briefly summarize the known observational properties of globular cluster systems. One re-occurring theme is that the globular cluster systems of spirals and…
The Milky Way contains several distinct old stellar components that provide a fossil record of its formation. We can understand their spatial distribution and kinematics in a hierarchical formation scenario by associating the proto-galactic…
Modern hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation are able to predict accurately the rates and locations of the assembly of giant molecular clouds in early galaxies. These clouds could host star clusters with the masses and sizes of real…
Recent maps of the halo using RR Lyrae from Pan-STARRS1 have clearly depicted the spatial structure of the Sagittarius stream. These maps show the leading and trailing stream apocenters differ in galactocentric radius by a factor of two,…
Traditionally globular clusters and dwarf spheroidal galaxies have been distinguished by using one or more of the following criteria: (1) mass, (2) luminosity, (3) size, (4) mass-to-light ratio and (5) spread in metallicity. However, a few…
The dynamical evolution of a single globular cluster and also of the entire Galactic globular cluster system has been studied theoretically in detail. In particular, simulations show how the 'lost' stars are distributed in tidal tails…
Hierarchical clustering represents the favoured paradigm for galaxy formation throughout the Universe; due to its proximity, the Magellanic system offers one of the few opportunities for astrophysicists to decompose the full six-dimensional…
Globular clusters (GCs) are often used to estimate the dark matter content of galaxies, especially dwarfs, where other kinematic tracers are lacking. These estimates typically assume spherical symmetry and dynamical equilibrium, assumptions…
We present the results of a detailed search for members of the Pal 5 tidal tail system in Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2). Tidal tails provide a sensitive method for measuring the current and past gravitational potential of their host galaxy as…
Recent Pan-STARRS data show that the leading arm from the globular cluster Palomar 5 (Pal 5) appears shorter than the trailing arm, while simulations of Pal 5 predict similar angular extents. We demonstrate that including the spinning…
We present an overview of observational progress in the study of extragalactic globular cluster systems. Globular clusters turn out to be excellent tracers not only for the star-formation histories in galaxies, but also for kinematics at…
Tidal debris from Galactic satellites generally forms one-dimensional elongated streams, since nearby Galactic orbits have almost identical frequency ratios. We show that the situation is different for orbits close to the Galactic disc,…
Stellar streams from globular clusters (GCs) offer constraints on the nature of dark matter and have been used to explore the dark matter halo structure and substructure of our Galaxy. Detection of GC streams in other galaxies would broaden…