Related papers: Clusters as benchmarks for measuring fundamental s…
Open clusters and associations are groups of young stars, respectively bound and unbound, that share the same origin and disperse over time into the galactic field. As such, their formation and evolution are the key to understand the origin…
The effects which star cluster concentration and binarity have on observable parameters, that characterise the dynamical state of a population of stars after their birth aggregate dissolves, are investigated. To this end, the correlations…
Astronomy is in an era where all-sky surveys are mapping the Galaxy. The plethora of photometric, spectroscopic, asteroseismic and astrometric data allows us to characterise the comprising stars in detail. Here we quantify to what extent…
We present the results of a study of young unresolved stellar groupings (clusters, OB associations, and their complexes) associated with HII regions, based on the coupling of spectroscopic, photometric and H{\alpha} spectrophotometric…
We recently introduced three new parameters that describe the shape of the normalized cumulative radial distribution (nCRD) of the innermost stars in globular clusters and trace the clusters dynamical evolution. Here we extend our previous…
The origin of the chemical anomalies in star clusters is still an open question, although much effort has been employed both from a theoretical and observational point of view. The exploration of whether such multiple stellar populations…
Star clusters are crucial for understanding how stars evolve. Their colour-magnitude diagrams show the effects of stellar evolution of approximately coeval objects with the same chemical composition. Furthermore, the determination of their…
Stellar populations contain the most important information about star clus- ter formation and evolution. Until several decades ago, star clusters were believed to be ideal laboratories for studies of simple stellar populations (SSPs).…
Most stars do not form in isolation but as part of a cluster comprising anywhere between a few dozen to several million stars with stellar densities ranging from 0.01 to several 10$^5$ \Msun pc$^{-3}$. The majority of these clusters…
I summarize in terms of evolutionary population synthesis models our current understanding of stellar populations in different environments, from star clusters in nearby galaxies to distant galaxies in clusters or seen through gravitational…
This paper addresses the questions of what we have learned about how and when dense star clusters form, and what studies of star clusters have revealed about galaxy formation and evolution. One important observation is that globular…
Owing to the remarkable photometric precision of space observatories like Kepler, stellar and planetary systems beyond our own are now being characterized en masse for the first time. These characterizations are pivotal for endeavors such…
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…
I will show that photometry -- if extending over a reasonable choice of passbands -- can give fairly precise information about young star clusters and their evolutionary state. Optical colors alone are known to leave severe ambiguities due…
We provide a review of the current status of several topics on the ages, distances, and mass functions of open clusters, with a particular emphasis on illuminating the areas of uncertainty. Hipparcos has obtained parallaxes for nearby open…
A large sample of young stellar groups is analysed aiming to investigate their clustering properties and dynamical evolution. A comparison of the Q statistical parameter, measured for the clusters, with the fractal dimension estimated for…
Young massive clusters are dense aggregates of young stars that form the fundamental building blocks of galaxies. Several examples exist in the Milky Way Galaxy and the Local Group, but they are particularly abundant in starburst and…
We recently used a large set of Monte Carlo simulations of globular clusters (GCs) to define new fully empirical parameters (named A5, P5, and S2.5) able to trace the internal dynamical evolution of dense stellar systems. These parameters…
Observations have revealed that most stars are born in clusters. These systems, containing from tens to thousands of stars and typically significant mass in gas in the youngest systems, evolve due to a combination of stellar and star-gas…
The catalog of stellar evolution tracks discussed in our previous work is meant to help characterize exoplanet host-stars of interest for follow-up observations with future missions like JWST. However, the utility of the catalog has been…