Related papers: Is the Galactic center populated with young star c…
We study the evolution and observability of young, compact star clusters near the Galactic center, such as the Arches and Quintuplet systems. The clusters are modeled by integrating the equations of motion of all stars while accounting for…
We study the evolution and observability of young compact star clusters within about 200pc of the Galactic center. Calculations are performed using direct N-body integration on the GRAPE-4, including the effects of both stellar and binary…
We discuss the structural change and degree of mass segregation of young dense star clusters within about 100pc of the Galactic center. In our calculations, which are performed with GRAPE-6, the equations of motion of all stars and binaries…
A star cluster in a galactic nucleus sinks toward the galactic center due to dynamical friction. As it spirals inward, the cluster loses mass due to stellar evolution, relaxation driven evaporation, and tidal stripping, eventually…
The three young clusters in the Galactic Center represent the closest examples of massive starbursts and they define the upper mass limit of the Galactic cluster mass functions. In this review, I describe the characteristics and content of…
The Quintuplet star cluster is one of only three known young ($<10$ Myr) massive (M $>10^4$ M$_\odot$) clusters within $\sim100$ pc of the Galactic Center. In order to explore star cluster formation and evolution in this extreme…
Stars are most likely to merge or collide in regions of the highest stellar densities, and our own Galactic Center contains many stars packed into a relatively small volume -- even the ambient stellar number density in the central 50 pc is…
A massive young star cluster, initially embedded in its parent molecular cloud, will spiral into the Galactic Center from $\lta 30m_6^{1/2}\pc$ during the life-time of its most massive stars, if the combined total mass is $\sim…
We present new absolute proper motion measurements for the Arches and Quintuplet clusters, two young massive star clusters near the Galactic center. Using multi-epoch HST observations, we construct proper motion catalogs for the Arches…
Recently, more than 100 Wolf-Rayet and OB stars were identified in the Galactic center. About a third of these sources are not spatially associated with any of the known star clusters in this region. We probe the distribution of drifted…
We report Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Near-infrared Camera and Multi-object Spectrometer (NICMOS) observations of the Arches and Quintuplet clusters, two extraordinary young clusters near the Galactic Center. For the first time, we have…
The Arches is one of the youngest, densest and most massive clusters in the Galaxy. As such it provides a unique insight into the lifecycle of the most massive stars known and the formation and survival of such stellar aggregates in the…
Most stars do not form in isolation but as part of a cluster comprising anywhere between a few dozen to several million stars with stellar densities ranging from 0.01 to several 10$^5$ \Msun pc$^{-3}$. The majority of these clusters…
The Galactic center (GC) provides a unique laboratory for a detailed examination of the interplay between massive star formation and the nuclear environment of our Galaxy. Here, we present an 100 ks Chandra ACIS observation of the Arches…
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…
The origin and initial mass function of young stellar clusters near the Galactic center are still poorly understood. Two of the more prominent ones, the Arches and Quintuplet clusters, may have formed from a shock-induced burst of star…
We study the evolution of star clusters in the Galactic tidal field starting from their birth in molecular clumps. Our model clusters form according to the local-density-driven cluster formation model in which the stellar density profile is…
The Nuclear Stellar Disk has been a highly active star-forming region in the Milky Way for approximately the last 30 million years. Despite hosting prominent clusters like Arches, Quintuplet, and Nuclear Stellar, their combined mass is less…
The evolution of star clusters is studied using N-body simulations in which the evolution of single stars and binaries are taken self-consistently into account. Initial conditions are chosen to represent relatively young Galactic open…
We present new near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the outer edges of the young stellar cluster around the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. The observations show a break in the surface-density profile of young stars…