Related papers: Mass segregation in star clusters is not energy eq…
We investigate whether open clusters (OCs) tend to energy equipartition, by means of direct N-body simulations with a broken power-law mass function. We find that the simulated OCs become strongly mass segregated, but the local velocity…
Star clusters - open and globulars - experience dynamical evolution on time scales shorter than their age. Consequently, open and globular clusters provide us with unique dynamical laboratories for learning about two-body relaxation, mass…
It is widely believed that globular clusters evolve over many two-body relaxation times toward a state of energy equipartition, so that velocity dispersion scales with stellar mass as \sigma ~ m^{-\eta} with \eta = 0.5. We show that this is…
Some young star clusters show a degree of mass segregation that is inconsistent with the effects of standard two-body relaxation from an initially unsegregated system without substructure, in virial equilibrium, and it is unclear whether…
Observations have revealed that most stars are born in clusters. As these clusters typically contain more mass in gas than in stars, accretion can play an important role in determining the final stellar masses. Numerical simulations of gas…
Mass segregation is seen in many star clusters, but whether massive stars form in the center of a cluster or migrate there dynamically is still debated. N-body simulations have shown that early dynamical mass segregation is possible when…
We present the results of a study aimed at exploring the evolution towards energy equipartition in star cluster models with different initial degrees of anisotropy in the velocity distribution. Our study reveals a number of novel aspects of…
We investigate the long-term dynamical evolution of the internal kinematics of multimass rotating star clusters. We have performed a set of N-body simulations to follow the internal evolution of clusters with different degrees of initial…
We make use of $N$-body simulations to determine the relationship between two observable parameters that are used to quantify mass segregation and energy equipartition in star clusters. Mass segregation can be quantified by measuring how…
Mass segregation is observed in many star clusters, including several that are less than a few Myr old. Timescale arguments are frequently used to argue that these clusters must be displaying primordial segregation, because they are too…
Two-body interactions play a major role in shaping the structural and dynamical properties of globular clusters (GCs) over their long-term evolution. In particular, GCs evolve toward a state of partial energy equipartition that induces a…
Observations of pre-/proto-stellar cores in young star-forming regions show them to be mass segregated, i.e. the most massive cores are centrally concentrated, whereas pre-main sequence stars in the same star-forming regions (and older…
We investigate the evolution of young star clusters using N-body simulations. We confirm that subvirial and fractal-structured clusters will dynamically mass segregate on a short timescale (within 0.5 Myr). We adopt a modified…
Dense star clusters expand until their sizes are limited by the tidal field of their host galaxy. During this expansion phase the member stars evolve and lose mass. We show that for clusters with short initial relaxation time scales (<~100…
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 the results of Monte Carlo simulations aimed at exploring the evolution towards energy equipartition of first- (1G) and second-generation (2G) stars in multiple-population globular clusters and how this evolution is affected by…
Utilizing a series of N-body simulations, we argue that gravitationally bound stellar clusters of modest population evolve very differently from the picture presented by classical dynamical relaxation theory. The system's most massive stars…
We address the dynamical evolution of an isolated self--gravitating system with two stellar mass groups. We vary the individual ratio of the heavy to light bodies, $\mu$ from 1.25 to 50 and alter also the fraction of the total heavy mass…
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…
We investigate the evolution of mass segregation in initially sub-structured young embedded star clusters with two different background potentials mimicking the gas. Our clusters are initially in virial or sub-virial global states and have…