Related papers: Taking apart the dynamical clock. Fat-tailed dynam…
We consider how dynamical friction acts on black holes that receive a velocity kick while located at the center of a gravitational potential, analogous to a star cluster, due to either a natal kick or the anisotropic emission of…
Dynamical friction and tidal disruption are effective mechanisms of evolution of globular cluster systems, especially in non-axysimmetric galaxies with a central compact nucleus. With a semi-analytical approach based on the knowledge of the…
(abridged) We use newly available empirical binary fractions for globular clusters to carry out a direct test of the binary evolution hypothesis, and of collisional channels that involve binary stars. More specifically, using the previously…
We derive an analytical model for the so-called phenomenon of `resonant dynamical friction', where a disc of stars around a super-massive black hole interacts with a massive perturber, so as to align its inclination with the disc's…
We have used the ``dynamical clock'' to measure the level of dynamical evolution reached by three Galactic globular clusters (namely, NGC 3201, NGC 6316 and NGC 6440). This is an empirical method that quantifies the level of central…
Recent JWST observations detected stellar clumps around the z=1.4 gravitationally lensed Sparkler galaxy (of stellar mass $M_*\sim 10^9\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$), with ages and metallicities compatible with globular clusters (GCs). However, most…
Blue straggler stars (BSSs) are brighter and bluer than the main-sequence (MS) turnoff and more massive than MS stars.Two scenarios for their formation have been proposed: collision-induced stellar mergers (COL-BSSs),or mass-transfer in…
Blue straggler stars (BSSs) are believed to form through mass transfer in binary systems or stellar collisions. The reported presence of double BSS sequences in some globular clusters (GCs) has been interpreted as evidence that these two…
[Abridged] The gas distribution in galaxies is smooth on large scales, but is usually time-dependent and inhomogeneous on smaller scales. The time-dependence originates from processes such as cloud formation, their collisions, and…
This chapter explores how we might use the observed {\em statistics} of blue stragglers in globular clusters to shed light on their formation. This means we will touch on topics also discussed elsewhere in this book, such as the discovery…
Recent surveys of the blue straggler (BS) population in the galactic globular cluster M3 (NGC 5272) give the first complete characterization of the number density of BSs as a function of radius over an entire globular cluster. The BSs in M3…
We developed a mathematical model to derive time scales and the presence of BS stars. The model is based on the variation of mass through a circle into the cluster defined by a radius, and at a time; this mass cross is translated into a…
For a rigid model satellite, Chandrasekhar's dynamical friction formula describes the orbital evolution quite accurately, when the Coulomb logarithm is chosen appropriately. However, it is not known if the orbital evolution of a real…
We present the first dynamical study of Blue Straggler Stars (BSSs) in three Galactic globular clusters, NGC\,3201, NGC\,5139 ($\omega$Cen), and NGC\,6218, based on medium-resolution spectroscopy (R 10000) obtained with IMACS. Our BSS…
We present a dynamical friction model based on Chandrasekhar's formula that reproduces the fast inspiral and stalling experienced by satellites orbiting galaxies with a large constant density core. We show that the fast inspiral phase does…
In this paper we study the long-term dynamical evolution of multiple-population clusters, focusing on the evolution of the spatial distributions of the first- (FG) and second-generation (SG) stars.In previous studies we have suggested that…
Context. The study of blue straggler stars (BSS) provides insight into the mechanisms of stellar mass exchange during binary stellar evolution and the complex gravitational interactions within dense stellar systems. In combination, they…
Direct numerical integrations of the Fokker-Planck equation in energy-angular momentum space are carried out for stars orbiting a supermassive black hole (SBH) at the center of a galaxy. The algorithm, which was described in detail in an…
We used high-quality images acquired with the WFC3 on board the HST to probe the blue straggler star (BSS) population of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 362. We have found two distinct sequences of BSS: this is the second case, after M…
The core of the Galactic Globular Cluster M3 (NGC 5272) has been observed with the WFPC2 through the filters F255W, F336W, F555W, and F814W. Using these observations along with a thorough reanalysis of earlier catalogs, we have produced a…