Related papers: Theory, Simulations and Observations of Stellar Me…
This lecture reviews the fundamental physical processes involved in star formation in galaxy interactions and mergers. Interactions and mergers often drive intense starbursts, but the link between interstellar gas physics, large scale…
In the cores of young dense star clusters repeated stellar collisions involving the same object can occur, which has been suggested to lead to the formation of an intermediate-mass black hole. In order to verify this scenario we compute the…
Neutron star mergers, referring to both binary neutron star and neutron star black hole mergers, are the canonical multimessenger events. They have been detected across the electromagnetic spectrum, have recently been detected in…
Magnetic fields are considered to be key components of massive stars, with a far-reaching impact on their evolution and ultimate fate. A magnetic mechanism was suggested for the collimated explosion of massive stars, relevant for…
Recent simulation work has successfully captured the formation of the star clusters that have been observed in merging galaxies. These studies, however, tend to focus on studying extreme starbursts, such as the Antennae galaxies. We aim to…
About 10% of stars more massive than ${\approx}\,1.5\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$ have strong, large-scale surface magnetic fields and are being discussed as progenitors of highly-magnetic white dwarfs and magnetars. The origin of these fields…
Post-main-sequence binary mergers are a common evolutionary pathway for massive stars, but the effects of merging on the long-term structure and evolution of the resulting star are a matter of active debate. Furthermore, the way in which…
We use cosmological SPH simulations to study the effects of mergers in the star formation history of galactic objects in hierarchical clustering scenarios. We find that during some merger events, gaseous discs can experience two starbursts:…
By using direct N-body numerical simulations, we model the dynamical co-evolution of two supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and the surrounding stars in merging galaxies. In order to investigate how different stellar components evolve during…
In this review, I present the case for how massive stars may form through stellar collisions. This mechanism requires very high stellar densities, up to 4 orders of magnitude higher than are observed in the cores of dense young clusters. In…
Galaxy mergers can enhance star formation rates throughout the merger sequence, with this effect peaking around the time of coalescence. However, owing to a lack of information about their time of coalescence, post-mergers could only…
We present a grid of rotating supergiant models from post-main sequence binary merger products, constructed by the MESA stellar evolution code. We focus on the evolution of these stars until core-collapse, in addition to their rotation,…
We use smoothed-particle hydrodynamics to examine differences between direct collisions of single stars and binary star mergers in their roles as possible blue straggler star formation mechanisms. We find in all cases that core helium in…
We present a model for the formation of high-mass close binary systems in the context of forming massive stars through gas accretion in the centres of stellar clusters. A low-mass wide binary evolves under mass accretion towards a high-mass…
Stellar triples with massive stellar components are common, and can lead to sequential binary black-hole mergers. Here, we outline the evolution towards these sequential mergers, and explore these events in the context of gravitational-wave…
We report the results of new SPH calculations of parabolic collisions between two main-sequence stars in a globular cluster. Such collisions are directly relevant to the formation of blue stragglers. In particular, we consider parent stars…
We continue our exploration of collisionally merged stars in the blue straggler region of the color-magnitude diagram. We report the results of new SPH calculations of parabolic collisions between two main-sequence stars, with the initial…
Galactic spheroids can form as a result of galaxy interactions and mergers of disks. Detailed analyses of the photometric properties, the intrinsic orbital structure, the line-of-sight velocity distributions and the kinemetry of simulated…
The star formation rate history of galactic objects in hydrodynamical cosmological simulations are analyzed in relation to their merger histories. The findings suggest that massive mergers produce more efficient starbursts and that,…
Physical collisions between stars occur frequently in dense star clusters, either via close encounters between two single stars, or during strong dynamical interactions involving binary stars. Here we study stellar collisions that occur…