Related papers: Massive star cluster formation and evolution in ti…
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…
Recent surveys of star forming regions have shown that most stars, and probably all massive stars, are born in dense stellar clusters. The mechanism by which a molecular cloud fragments to form several hundred to thousands of individual…
Recent high-resolution observations with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) reveal that star clusters of extraordinary luminosity and compactness are commonly found in a variety of starburst systems. There has been much speculation that these…
How starburst clusters form out of molecular clouds is still an open question. In this article, I highlight some of the key constraints in this regard, that one can get from the dynamical evolutionary properties of dense stellar systems. I…
We present a statistical analysis of the properties of a large sample of dynamically hot old stellar systems, from globular clusters to giant ellipticals, which was performed in order to investigate the origin of ultra-compact dwarf…
Tidally limited star clusters are started on nearly circular orbits in the dark matter sub-halos present at high redshift and evolved with an n-body code augmented with gravitational interactions in the clusters. The tidally removed stars…
The distinction between globular clusters and dwarf galaxies has been progressively blurred by the recent discoveries of several extended star clusters, with size (20-30 pc) and luminosity (-6 < Mv < -2) comparable to the one of faint dwarf…
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…
We present a study of the properties of the star-cluster systems around pseudo-bulges of late-type spiral galaxies using a sample of 11 galaxies with distances from 17 to 37 Mpc. Star clusters are identified from multiband HST ACS and WFPC2…
The observed discrete multiple stellar populations and internal abundance spreads in r- and s-process elements within globular clusters (GCs) have been suggested to be explained self-consistently by discrete star formation events over a…
We built Galactic open star cluster mass functions (CMFs) for different age sub-samples in the wider solar neighbourhood. We present a simple cluster formation and evolution model to reproduce the main features of the CMFs. We used an…
Starbursts produce large numbers of Young Star Clusters (YSCs). Multi-color photometry in combination with a dedicated SED analysis tool allows to derive ages, metallicities, ${\rm E_{B-V}}$, and masses including $1 \sigma$ uncertainties…
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…
Mergers of gas-rich galaxies lead to gravitationally driven increases in gas pressure that can trigger intense bursts of star and cluster formation. Although star formation itself is clustered, most newborn stellar aggregates are unbound…
The self-enrichment of massive star clusters by p-processed elements is shown to increase significantly with increasing gas density as a result of enhanced star formation rates and stellar scatterings compared to the lifetime of a massive…
Galaxy clusters contain a large population of low mass dwarf elliptical galaxies whose exact origin is unclear: their colors, structural properties and kinematics differ substantially from those of dwarf irregulars in the field. We use the…
Star clusters are often used as tracers of major star formation events in external galaxies as they can be studied up to much larger distances than individual stars. It is vital to understand their evolution if they are used to derive, for…
Current empirical evidence on the star-formation processes in the extreme, high-pressure environments induced by galaxy encounters (mostly based on high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations) strongly suggests that star CLUSTER…
This paper explores if, and to what an extent, the stellar populations of early type galaxies can be traced through the colour distribution of their globular cluster systems. The analysis, based on a galaxy sample from the Virgo ACS data,…
Properties of nearby dwarf galaxies are briefly discussed. Dwarf galaxies vary widely in their star formation histories, the ages of their subpopulations, and in their enrichment history. Furthermore, many dwarf galaxies show evidence for…