Related papers: The Chemo-Dynamical Groups of Galactic Globular Cl…
Globular clusters (GCs) are found in all types of galaxies and harbor some of the most extreme stellar systems, including black holes that may dynamically assemble into merging binaries (BBHs). Uncertain GC properties, including when they…
We present an empirical model for the number of globular clusters (GCs) in galaxies based on recent data showing a tight relationship between dark matter halo virial masses and GC numbers. While a simple base model forming GCs in low-mass…
Internal chemical abundance spreads are one of fundamental properties of globular clusters (GCs) in the Galaxy. In order to understand the origin of such abundance spreads, we numerically investigate GC formation from massive molecular…
It has been recently shown that the halo near the Sun contains several kinematic substructures associated to past accretion events. For the more distant halo, there is evidence of large-scale density variations -- in the form of stellar…
In the currently favored cosmological paradigm galaxies form hierarchically through the accretion of numerous satellite galaxies. Since the satellites are much less massive than the host halo, they occupy a small fraction of the volume in…
We study the stellar population history and chemical evolution of the Milky Way (MW) in a hierarchical LCDM model for structure formation. Using a Monte Carlo method based on the semi-analytical EPS formalism, we reconstruct the merger tree…
Globular clusters are unique tracers of ancient star formation. We determine the formation efficiencies of globular clusters across cosmic time by modeling the formation and dynamical evolution of the globular cluster population of a Milky…
Globular clusters encode the hierarchical assembly history of the Milky Way and the physics of multiple stellar populations. Using homogeneous stellar parameters for 69 Galactic globular clusters derived while modelling multiple…
The formation of stars with light-element abundance variations in globular clusters and the subsequent dynamical evolution of these multiple populations remains an open question. One of the most widely discussed is the AGB scenario, in…
The role that minor mergers have played in the formation and structure of the Milky Way is still an open question, about which there is much debate. We use numerical simulations to explore the evolution of debris from a tidally disrupted…
The mass distribution and chemical composition of globular cluster (GC) systems preserve fossil record of the early stages of galaxy formation. The observed distribution of GC colors within massive early-type galaxies in the ACS Virgo…
We summarise recent results from analysis of APOGEE/Gaia data for stellar populations in the Galactic halo, disk, and bulge, leading to constraints on the contribution of dwarf galaxies and globular clusters to the stellar content of the…
Recent hydrodynamic cosmological simulations cover volumes up to Gpc^3 and resolve halos across a wide range of masses and environments, from massive galaxy clusters down to normal galaxies, while following a large variety of physical…
We present a cosmologically motivated model for the hierachical formation of the stellar halo which includes a semi-analytic treatment of galactic chemical enrichment coupled to numerical simulations that track the orbital evolution and…
If the favored hierarchical cosmological model is correct, then the Milky Way system should have accreted ~100-200 luminous satellite galaxies in the past \~12 Gyr. We model this process using a hybrid semi-analytic plus N-body approach…
(Abridged) We investigate the hypothesis that some fraction of the globular clusters presently observed in the Galactic halo formed in external dwarf galaxies, by means of a detailed comparison between Zinn's "old halo", "young halo", and…
We investigate the dynamical evolution of the Galactic Globular Cluster System in considerably greater detail than has been done hitherto, finding that destruction rates are significantly larger than given by previous estimates. More than…
Stellar atmospheric element abundance ratios of stars retain information about their birth conditions, helping elucidate their origin and nature. In this letter, we analyse and contrast the hydrostatic and explosive $\alpha$-element…
Globular clusters (GCs), the oldest stellar systems observed in the Milky Way, have for long been considered single stellar populations. As such, they provided an ideal laboratory to understand stellar dynamics and primordial star formation…
Ongoing accretion onto galactic disks has been recently theorized to progress via the unstable cooling of the baryonic halo into condensed clouds. These clouds have been identified as analogous to the High-Velocity Clouds (HVCs) observed in…