Related papers: The currently observed clumps cannot be the "direc…
Recent observations have revealed a variety of young star clusters, including embedded systems, young massive clusters, and associations. We study the formation and dynamical evolution of these clusters using a combination of simulations…
Stars form predominantly in groups usually denoted as clusters or associations. The observed stellar groups display a broad spectrum of masses, sizes and other properties, so it is often assumed that there is no underlying structure in this…
The initial mass--radius relation of embedded star clusters is an essentially important boundary condition for understanding the evolution of embedded clusters in which stars form to their release into the galactic field via an open star…
An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within…
I review the characteristics of cluster populations in other galaxies, with particular emphasis on young star clusters and a comparison with the (known) open cluster population of the Milky Way. Young globular cluster-like (compact,…
The mismatch between the mass function of the Milky Way's embedded clusters (ECs) and that of open clusters (OCs) raises the question of whether each OC originates from a single EC. In this work, we explore a scenario in which OCs form as a…
We report results on the analysis of eleven new Milky Way open cluster candidates, recently discovered from the detection of stellar overdensities in the Vector Point diagram, by employing extreme deconvolution Gaussian mixture models. We…
Aims: Based on our well-determined sample of open clusters in the all-sky catalogue ASCC-2.5 we derive new linear sizes of some 600 clusters, and investigate the effect of mass segregation of stars in open clusters. Methods: Using…
Comparing N-body calculations that include primordial residual-gas expulsion with the observed properties of 20 Galactic globular clusters (GCs) for which the stellar mass function (MF) has been measured, we constrain the time-scale over…
Stars form predominantly in groups which display a broad spectrum of masses, sizes, and other properties. Despite this diversity there exist an underlying structure that can constrain cluster formation theories. We show how combining…
Globular clusters are large and dense agglomerate of stars. At variance with smaller clusters of stars, they exhibit signs of some chemical evolution. At least for this reason, they are intermediate between open clusters and massive objects…
The mass function of molecular clouds and clumps is shallower than the mass function of young star clusters, gas-embedded and gas-free alike, as their respective mass function indices are $\beta_0 \simeq 1.7$ and $\beta_\star \simeq 2$. We…
This paper is part of a project to search the inner Milky Way for hidden massive clusters and to address the question of whether our Galaxy still forms clusters similar to the progenitors of the present-day globular clusters. We report high…
Stars are born within dense clumps of giant molecular clouds, constituting young stellar agglomerates known as embedded clusters, which only evolve into bound open clusters under special conditions. We statistically study all embedded…
The progenitors of high-mass stars and clusters are still challenging to recognise. Only unbiased surveys, sensitive to compact regions of high dust column density, can unambiguously reveal such a small population of particularly massive…
We investigate the properties and evolution of star particles in two simulations of isolated spiral galaxies, and two galaxies from cosmological simulations. Unlike previous numerical work, where typically each star particle represents one…
The study of the internal structure of star clusters provides important clues concerning their formation mechanism and dynamical evolution. There are both observational and numerical evidences indicating that open clusters evolve from an…
Most stars form as part of a star cluster. The most massive clusters in the Milky Way exist in two groups - loose and compact clusters - with significantly different sizes at the end of the star formation process. After their formation both…
We report astrophysical properties of 12 Milky Way open clusters located beyond the circle around the Sun where the number of catalogued open clusters is thought to be statistically complete. By using deep optical photometry, we estimated…
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…