Related papers: Young Massive Clusters: Their Population Propertie…
The characteristics of the cluster systems of the Magellanic Clouds, as inferred from integrated properties, are compared with those from individual cluster studies and from the field population. The agreement is generally satisfactory…
Star clusters are the building blocks of galaxies. They are composed of stars of nearly equal age and chemical composition, allowing us to use them as chronometers and as testbeds for gauging stellar evolution. It has become clear recently…
Multiple stellar populations are observed in almost all globular-clusters, but the origin of this phenomenon is still debated. We investigate the role cool supergiants may have played. To do this, we combine two investigative methods:…
Nearly all globular clusters (GCs) studied to date show evidence for multiple stellar populations, in stark contrast to the conventional view that GCs are a mono-metallic, coeval population of stars. Building on earlier work, we propose a…
The study of cluster populations as tracer of galaxy evolution is now quite possible with 8 m class telescopes and modern instrumentation. The cluster population can be used as a good tracer of the star forming episodes undergone by the…
We study the degree of angular substructure in the stellar position distribution of young members of Galactic star-forming regions, looking for correlations with distance from cluster center, surface number density of stars, and local…
The presence of young stellar populations in the Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 1783 has caught significant attention, with suggestions ranging from it being a genuine secondary stellar generation to a population of blue straggler stars…
Some of the most massive globular clusters of our Milky Way, such as for example omega-Centauri, show a mixture of stellar populations spanning a few Gyr in age and 1.5 dex in metallicities. In contrast, standard formation scenarios predict…
Stars form predominantly in groups usually denoted as clusters or associations. The observed stellar groups display a broad spectrum of masses, sizes and other properties, so it is often assumed that there is no underlying structure in this…
Young, massive star clusters are the most notable and significant end products of violent star-forming episodes triggered by galaxy collisions, mergers, and close encounters. Their contribution to the total luminosity induced by such…
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…
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 discuss how the centres of galaxy clusters evolve in time, showing the results of a series of direct N-body simulations. In particular, we followed the evolution of a galaxy cluster with a mass $M_{clus} \simeq 10^{14} $M$_{\odot}$ in…
The discovery of star-to-star abundance variations (a.k.a. multiple populations - MPs) within globular clusters (GCs), which are generally not found in the field or in lower mass open clusters, has led to a search for the unique property of…
We review recent work that investigates the formation of stellar clusters, ranging in scale from globular clusters through open clusters to the small scale aggregates of stars observed in T associations. In all cases, recent advances in…
In gaussian theories of structure formation, the galaxy cluster abundance is an extremely sensitive probe of the density fluctuation power spectrum and of the density parameter, $\Omega$. We develop this theme by deriving and studying in…
Globular clusters (GCs), the oldest stellar systems observed in the Milky Way, have for long been considered single stellar populations. As such, they provided an ideal laboratory to understand stellar dynamics and primordial star formation…
Currently there are two competing scenarios to explain the origin of the stellar population in globular clusters (GCs). The main difference between them is whether or not multiple events of star formation took place within GCs. In this…
It appears that the dynamical status of clusters and groups of galaxies is related to the large-scale structure of the Universe. A few interesting trends have been established: (1) The Cluster Substructure - Alignment Connection, by which…
Dense star clusters are spectacular self-gravitating stellar systems in our Galaxy and across the Universe - in many respects. They populate disks and spheroids of galaxies as well as almost every galactic center. In massive elliptical…