Related papers: Anisotropic Mass Segregation in Rotating Globular …
We test the hypothesis that globular clusters form in supergiant molecular clouds within high-redshift galaxies. Numerical simulations demonstrate that such large, dense, and cold gas clouds assemble naturally in current hierarchical models…
Mass segregation, a tendency of more massive galaxies being distributed closer to the cluster center, is naturally expected from dynamical friction, but its presence is still controversial. Using deep optical observations of 14 Abell…
Taking advantage of a high-resolution simulation coupled with a state-of-art semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, we probe the mass segregation of galaxies in groups and clusters, focusing on which physical mechanisms are driving it. We…
The central regions of galaxies show the presence of massive black holes and/or dense stellar systems. The question about their modes of formation is still under debate. A likely explanation of the formation of the central dense stellar…
We have examined the spatial distribution of substructure in clusters of galaxies using Einstein X-ray observations. Subclusters are found to have a markedly anisotropic distribution that reflects the surrounding matter distribution on…
We study gravitational instabilities in disks, with special attention to the most massive clumps that form because they are expected to be the progenitors of globular-type clusters. The maximum unstable mass is set by rotation and depends…
We study the early dynamical evolution of young, dense star clusters using Monte Carlo simulations for systems with up to N~10^7 stars. Rapid mass segregation of massive main-sequence stars and the development of the Spitzer instability can…
Recent observations and stellar dynamics simulations suggest that thousand solar mass black holes can form in compact massive young star clusters. Any such clusters in the bulge of their host galaxy will spiral to the center within a few…
Recent observations suggest the presence of supermassive black holes at the centers of many galaxies. The existence of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in globular clusters has also been predicted. We focus on gravitational lensing as…
We use direct $N$-body calculations to investigate the impact of primordial mass segregation on the size scale and mass-loss rate of star clusters in a galactic tidal field. We run a set of simulations of clusters with varying degrees of…
We recently introduced a new method for simulating collisional gravitational N-body systems with approximately linear time scaling with $N$, based on the Multi-Particle Collision (MPC) scheme, previously applied in Plasma Physics. We…
We study gravitational instabilities in disks, with special attention to the most massive clumps that form because they are expected to be the progenitors of globular-type clusters. The maximum unstable mass is set by rotation and depends…
We have studied the dynamical evolution of rotating globular clusters with direct $N$-body models. Our initial models are rotating King models; we obtained results for both equal-mass systems and systems composed out of two mass components.…
Many processes within galaxy clusters, such as those believed to govern the onset of thermally unstable cooling and AGN feedback, are dependent upon local dynamical timescales. However, accurately mapping the mass distribution within…
We present the results of a set of N-body simulations aimed at exploring how the process of mass segregation (as traced by the spatial distribution of blue straggler stars, BSSs) is affected by the presence of a population of heavy dark…
The analysis of the spatial distribution and kinematics of galaxies in clusters allows one to determine the cluster internal dynamics. In this paper, I review the state of the art of this topic. In particular, I summarize what we have…
Gravitational wave recoil kicks from merging supermassive black hole binaries can have a profound effect on the surrounding stellar population. In this work, we study the dynamic and kinematic properties of nuclear star clusters following a…
We present the results of a study aimed at exploring, by means of N-body simulations, the evolution of rotating multi-mass star clusters during the violent relaxation phase, in the presence of a weak external tidal field. We study the…
We discuss constraints on the formation of multiple populations in globular clusters (GCs) imposed by their present-day kinematics (velocity dispersion and anisotropy) and spatial distribution. We argue that the observational evidence…
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…