Related papers: The Initial Mass Function in the Galactic Center
We review progress in numerical simulations of star cluster formation. These simulations involve the bottom-up assembly of clusters through hierarchical mergers, which produces a fractal stellar distribution at young (~0.5 Myr) ages. The…
The properties of old globular cluster systems (GCSs) in galaxy halos offer unique insight into the physical processes that conspire to form any generic star cluster, at any epoch. Presented here is a summary of the information obtained…
Observations of the Galactic Centre show evidence of disc-like structures of very young stars orbiting the central super-massive black hole within a distance of a few 0.1 pc. While it is widely accepted that about half of the stars form a…
The recent discovery by Gillessen and collaborators of a cloud of gas falling towards the Galactic Center on a highly eccentric orbit, diving nearly straight into the immediate neighborhood of the central supermassive black hole, raises the…
The mass function of freshly formed star clusters is empirically often described as a power law. However the cluster mass function of populations of young clusters over the scale of a galaxy has been found to be described by a…
Young star clusters (YSCs) appear to be a ubiquitous product of star formation in local galaxies, thus, they can be used to study the star formation process at work in their host galaxies. Moreover, YSCs are intrinsically brighter that…
The inspiral of a turbulent molecular cloud in the Galactic Centre may result in the formation of a small, dense and moderately eccentric gas disc around the supermassive black hole (SMBH). Such a disc is unstable to fragmentation and may…
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…
Low-mass galaxies at high redshifts are the building blocks of more massive galaxies at later times and are thus key populations for understanding galaxy formation and evolution. We have made deep narrow-band observations for two…
We use N-body simulations to model the 12 Gyr evolution of a suite of star clusters with identical initial stellar mass functions over a range of initial cluster masses, sizes, and orbits. Our models reproduce the distribution of…
I review our current state of knowledge about non-thermal radiation from the Galactic Centre (GC) and Inner Galaxy. Definitionally, the Galactic nucleus is at the bottom of the Galaxy's gravitational well, rendering it a promising region to…
Globular clusters are compact, gravitationally bound systems of up to a million stars. The GCs in the Milky Way contain some of the oldest stars known, and provide important clues to the early formation and continuing evolution of our…
When the cosmic star formation history peaks (z ~ 2), galaxies vigorously fed by cosmic reservoirs are gas dominated and contain massive star-forming clumps, thought to form by violent gravitational instabilities in highly turbulent…
(Abridged) The building blocks of galaxies are star clusters. These form with low-star formation efficiencies and, consequently, loose a large part of their stars that expand outwards once the residual gas is expelled by the action of the…
N-body simulations are used to model the early evolution of globular clusters. These simulations include residual gas which was not turned into stars which is expelled from the globular cluster by the actions of massive stars. The results…
Globular clusters (GCs) are among the oldest and most luminous stellar systems in the Universe, offering unique insights into galaxy formation and evolution. While the physical processes behind their origin have long remained elusive, major…
Star formation is a fundamental process for galactic evolution. One issue over the last several decades has been determining whether star formation is induced by external triggers or is self-regulated in a closed system. The role of an…
The center of the Milky Way galaxy (MW) is an extreme environment which contains a massive black hole surrounded by a very dense star cluster, two other adjacent star clusters, and a giant molecular cloud which would serve as an incubator…
Bright Active Galactic Nuclei are powered by accretion of mass onto the super massive black holes at the centers of the host galaxies. For fainter objects star formation may significantly contribute to the luminosity. We summarize…
Young massive stars in the central parsec of our Galaxy are best explained by star formation within at least one, and possibly two, massive self-gravitating gaseous discs. With help of numerical simulations, we here consider whether the…