Related papers: Dynamical evolution of star clusters with top-heav…
Theoretical considerations lead to the expectation that stars should not have masses larger than about m_{max*}=60-120Msun, while the observational evidence has been ambiguous. Only very recently has a physical stellar mass limit near…
The theory for the formation of the first population of stars (Pop III) predicts a IMF composed predominantly of high-mass stars, in contrast to the present-day IMF, which tends to yield stars with masses less than 1 M_Solar. The leading…
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…
The current generation of galaxy simulations can resolve individual giant molecular clouds, the progenitors of dense star clusters. But the evolutionary fate of these young massive clusters, and whether they can become the old globular…
Growing evidence in recent years suggests a systematic variation of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), being top-heavy for starburst galaxies and possibly bottom-heavy for massive ellipticals. Galaxy chemical evolution simulations…
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…
Several independent lines of evidence suggest that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in early-type galaxies becomes increasingly `bottom-heavy' with increasing galaxy mass and/or velocity dispersion, sigma. Here we consider evidence…
The initial and present-day mass functions (ICMF and PDMF, respectively) of the Galactic globular clusters (GCs) are constructed based on their observed luminosities, the stellar evolution and dynamical mass-loss processes, and the…
We discuss the star formation history of the Galaxy, based on the observations of extremely metal-poor stars (EMP) in the Galactic halo, to gain an insight into the evolution and structure formation in the early universe. The initialmass…
Here we model a star forming factory in which the continuous creation of stars results in a highly concentrated, massive (globular cluster-like) stellar system. We show that under very general conditions a large-scale gravitational…
A method is presented here for investigating variations in the upper end of the stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) by probing the production rate of ionizing photons in unresolved, compact star clusters with ages<10 Myr and covering a…
Much of our knowledge of galaxies comes from analysing the radiation emitted by their stars. It depends on the stellar initial mass function (IMF) describing the distribution of stellar masses when the population formed. Consequently…
Recent studies seem to suggest that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in early-type galaxies might be different from a classical Kroupa or Chabrier IMF, i.e. contain a larger fraction of the total mass in low-mass stars. From a…
Standard analytical chemical evolution modelling of galaxies has been assuming the stellar initial mass function (IMF) to be invariant and fully sampled allowing fractions of massive stars to contribute even in dwarf galaxies with very low…
Stars in globular clusters (GCs) lose a non negligible amount of mass during their post-main sequence evolution. This material is then expected to build up a substantial intra-cluster medium (ICM) within the GC. However, the observed gas…
We have developed a numerical galactic chemical evolution model. The model is constructed such that the effect of a wide range of parameters can be investigated. It takes into account results from stellar evolution models, a differentiation…
Many recent works have attempted to constrain the stellar initial mass function (IMF) inside massive clusters by comparing their dynamical mass estimates to the measured light. These studies have come to different conclusions, with some…
A young open cluster is a 2-phase system: an ensemble of stars move in a gaseous medium (the mother molecular cloud). The dynamics and thermodynamics of the system, and so its evolution and final fate (is it stable or unstable?), strongly…
Several recent studies have provided evidence for a `bottom-heavy' stellar initial mass function (IMF) in massive elliptical galaxies. Here we investigate the influence of the IMF shape on the recently discovered color-magnitude relation…
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…