Related papers: Nuclear Star Clusters in Cosmological Simulations
The centres of galaxies host nuclear stellar clusters, supermassive black holes, or both. The origin of this dichotomy is still a mystery. Nuclear stellar clusters are the densest stellar system in the Universe, so they are ideal places for…
Over the last decade, HST imaging studies have revealed that the centers of most galaxies are occupied by compact, barely resolved sources. Based on their structural properties, position in the fundamental plane, and spectra, these sources…
Detailed understanding of the formation and evolution of globular clusters (GCs) has been recently advanced through a combination of numerical simulations and analytical models. We employ a state-of-the-art model to create a comprehensive…
An analysis of the star cluster population in a low-luminosity early type galaxy, NGC 2328, is presented. The clusters are found in a tight star-forming nuclear spiral/ring pattern and we also identify a bar from structural 2D…
The centers of most galaxies in the local universe are occupied by compact, barely resolved sources. Based on their structural properties, position in the fundamental plane, and integrated spectra, these sources clearly have a stellar…
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…
Due to its proximity, the stellar populations of the Galactic bulge (GB) can be resolved and can be studied in detail. This allows tracing the bulge metallicity distribution function (MDF) for different spatial regions within the bulge,…
From observations of edge-on, late-type galaxies, we present morphological evidence that some nuclear star clusters have experienced in situ star formation. We find three nuclear clusters that, viewed from the edge-on perspective, have both…
We summarize some recent results from our observational campaign to study the central regions of spiral galaxies of late Hubble type (Scd - Sm). These disk-dominated, bulgeless galaxies have an apparently uneventful merger history. The…
We discuss the present state of knowledge and thought concerning the spread in age found among Galactic globular clusters, with some discussion of the implications for what happened during the earliest stages of the formation of the Milky…
$\omega$ Cen is a rare example of a globular cluster where the iron abundance of the stars spans more than one order of magnitude. Many spectroscopic investigations of its red-giant- and sub-giant- branches have revealed multiple peaks in…
We present photometric and morphological analyses of nuclear star clusters (NSCs) -- very dense, massive star clusters present in the central regions of most galaxies -- in a sample of 33 massive disk galaxies within 20 Mpc, part of the…
In this study, we investigate the distribution and origin of chemical elements in different stellar components of simulated Milky Way-like galaxies in relation to their mass assembly history, stellar age, and metallicity. Using a sample of…
We investigate a scenario where the formation of Globular Clusters (GCs) is triggered by high-speed collisions between infalling atomic-cooling subhalos during the assembly of the main galaxy host, a special dynamical mode of star formation…
One of the conundrums in extragalactic astronomy is the discrepancy in observed metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) between the two prime stellar components of early-type galaxies-globular clusters (GCs) and halo field stars. This is…
We explore the self-enrichment hypothesis for globular cluster formation with respect to the star formation aspect. Following this scenario, the massive stars of a first stellar generation chemically enrich the globular progenitor cloud up…
We present high-quality, Keck spectroscopic data for a sample of 20 globular clusters (GCs) in the massive E0 galaxy NGC1407. A subset of twenty line-strength indices of the Lick/IDS system have been measured for both the GC system and the…
We present a high-resolution simulation of globular cluster formation in a galaxy merger. For the first time in such a simulation, individual star clusters are directly identified and followed on their orbits. We quantitatively compare star…
Long-lived stars in GCs exhibit chemical peculiarities with respect to their halo counterparts. In particular, Na-enriched stars are identified as belonging to a 2d stellar population born from cluster material contaminated by the H-burning…
This review recaps significant results as they apply to non-dwarf galaxies, including the Milky Way, spiral disks and bulges, and elliptical and lenticular galaxies. Conclusions that span the galaxy types treated here are as follows. All…