Related papers: Extragalactic Globular Cluster Systems: A new Pers…
In the first part of this article, we review observations of the mass and luminosity functions of young and old star cluster systems. We also review some of the physical processes that may determine the characteristic mass of globular…
Understanding the formation of globular clusters will help us to constrain the evolutionary history of galaxies. For mergers on-going today, it appears that the number of newly created proto-globulars varies with the progenitor types and…
Correlations among the independently measured physical properties of globular clusters (GCs) can provide powerful tests for theoretical models and new insights into their dynamics, formation, and evolution. We review briefly some of the…
The current properties of globular cluster systems (GCSs) are the result of the evolution experienced by their host galaxies, which shape the richness of the GCS as well as its spatial distribution, among other features. We carry out an…
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…
In this paper we address the issue of the origin of some observational properties of the galactic globular cluster system. After a preliminary study of some general properties of the main evolutionary processes, we investigate the evolution…
Globular clusters are stellar dynamical systems which evolve on stellar evolutionary and both internal and external dynamical timescales. Quantitative comparison of cluster properties with realistic evolutionary dynamical models is becoming…
The present-day globular cluster populations of galaxies reflect the cumulative effects of billions of years of galaxy evolution via such processes as mergers, tidal stripping, accretion, and in some cases the partial or even complete…
The study of cluster populations as tracer of galaxy evolution is now quite possible with 8 m class telescopes and modern instrumentation. The cluster population can be used as a good tracer of the star forming episodes undergone by the…
Globular clusters are ancient stellar populations with no star formation or core-collapse supernovae. Several lines of evidence suggest that globular clusters are rich in planets. If so, and if advanced civilizations can develop there, then…
Globular cluster (GC) systems have now been studied in galaxies ranging from dwarfs to giants and spanning the full Hubble sequence of morphological types. Imaging and spectroscopy with the Hubble Space Telescope and large ground-based…
We present a kinematic analysis of the globular cluster systems and diffuse stellar light of four intermediate luminosity (sub-$L^{\ast}$) early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster based on Gemini/GMOS data. Our galaxy sample is fainter…
We review recent work that investigates the formation of stellar clusters, ranging in scale from globular clusters through open clusters to the small scale aggregates of stars observed in T associations. In all cases, recent advances in…
Globular star clusters are extremely important astrophysical objects since (1) they are prime laboratories for testing stellar evolution; (2) they are ``fossils'' from the epoch of galaxy formation, and thus important cosmological tools;…
I comment (in a review fashion) on a few selected topics in the field of extragalactic globular clusters with strong emphasis on recent work. The topics are: bimodality in the colour distribution of cluster systems, young massive clusters,…
Recent high-resolution observations of the central region of Galactic globular clusters have shown the presence of a large variety of exotic stellar objects whose formation and evolution may be strongly affected by dynamical interactions.…
Globular clusters (GCs) are bright objects that span a wide range of galactocentric distances, and are thus probes of the structure of dark matter (DM) haloes. In this work, we explore whether the projected radial profiles of GCs can be…
Observational and theoretical arguments support the idea that violent events connected with $AGN$ activity and/or intense star forming episodes have played a significant role in the early phases of galaxy formation at high red shifts. Being…
Recent observational results on the globular cluster systems of spiral galaxies are summarized. Although the number of spirals with well-studied GCSs is still small, new studies promise to increase it rapidly in the next few years. New…
We present an end-to-end description of the formation process of globular clusters (GCs) which combines a treatment for their formation and dynamical evolution within galaxy haloes with a state-of-the-art semi-analytic simulation of galaxy…