Related papers: The formation and dynamical evolution of young sta…
A significant proportion of Milky Way stars are born in stellar clusters, which dissolve over time so that the members become part of the disc and halo populations of the Galaxy. In the present work we will assume that these young stellar…
Massive star clusters are often used as tracers of galaxy formation and assembly. In order to do so, we must understand their properties at formation, and how those properties change with time, galactic environment, and galaxy assembly…
In compact and dense star-forming clouds a global star cluster wind could be suppressed. In this case the stellar feedback is unable to expel the leftover gas from the cluster. Young massive stars remain embedded into a dense residual gas…
Most stars form in compact, dense embedded clusters with memberships ranging from a dozen stars to many millions of stars. Embedded clusters containing more than a few hundred stars also contain O stars that disrupt the nebula abruptly.…
Early expansion plays a fundamental role in the dynamical evolution of young star clusters. However, until very recently most of our understanding of cluster expansion was based only on indirect evidence or on statistically limited samples…
During the last two decades, the focus of star formation research has shifted from understanding the collapse of a single dense core into a star to studying the formation hundreds to thousands of stars in molecular clouds. In this chapter,…
Star clusters are observed to form in a highly compact state and with low star-formation efficiencies. If the residual gas is expelled on a dynamical time the clusters disrupt thereby (i) feeding a hot kinematical stellar component into…
A novel way of looking at the evolution of star clusters is presented. With a dynamical temperature, given by the mean kinetic energy of the cluster stars, and a dynamical luminosity, which is defined as the kinetic energy of the stars…
We have modeled in detail the evolution of rich open star clusters such as the Pleiades, Praesepe and Hyades, using simulations that include stellar dynamics as well as the effects of stellar evolution. The dynamics is modeled via direct…
Most stars are born in rich young stellar clusters (YSCs) embedded in giant molecular clouds. The most massive stars live out their short lives there, profoundly influencing their natal environments by ionizing HII regions, inflating…
Young star clusters (SCs) are the cradle of stars and the site of important dynamical processes. We present N-body simulations of young SCs including recipes for metal-dependent stellar evolution and mass loss by stellar winds. We show that…
Most stars are born in the crowded environments of gradually forming star clusters. Dynamical interactions between close-passing stars and the evolving UV radiation fields from proximate massive stars are expected to sculpt the…
We study the growth of stellar discs of Milky Way-sized galaxies using a suite of cosmological simulations. We calculate the half-mass axis lengths and axis ratios of stellar populations split by age in isolated galaxies with stellar mass…
Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams of star forming regions show a large luminosity spread. This is incompatible with well-defined isochrones based on classic non-accreting protostellar evo- lution models. Protostars do not evolve in isolation of…
The currently most popular models for the dynamical evolution of star clusters predict that the power-law Cluster Luminosity Functions (CLFs) of young star cluster systems will be transformed rapidly into the universal Gaussian CLFs of old…
We report astrophysical properties of 12 Milky Way open clusters located beyond the circle around the Sun where the number of catalogued open clusters is thought to be statistically complete. By using deep optical photometry, we estimated…
The mass function of molecular clouds and clumps is shallower than the mass function of young star clusters, gas-embedded and gas-free alike, as their respective mass function indices are $\beta_0 \simeq 1.7$ and $\beta_\star \simeq 2$. We…
This chapter reviews the dynamical processes in young stellar clusters. The accretion of gas by individual stars affects the dynamics of the cluster, and the masses of the stars. Dynamical mass segregation cannot explain the degree of mass…
The evolution of molecular clouds in galactic centres is thought to differ from that in galactic discs due to a significant influence of the external gravitational potential. We present a set of numerical simulations of molecular clouds…
The all-sky Milky Way Star Clusters (MWSC) survey provides uniform and precise ages and other parameters for a variety of clusters in the Solar Neighbourhood. We construct the cluster age distribution, investigate its spatial variations,…