Related papers: Runaway Collisions in Star Clusters
Mergers of massive gas-rich galaxies trigger violent starbursts that - over timescales of $> 100$ Myr and regions $> 10$ kpc - form massive and compact star clusters comparable in mass and radii to Galactic globular clusters. The star…
The collective properties of star clusters are investigated using a simulation of the collision between two dwarf galaxies. The characteristic power law of the cluster mass function, N(M), with a logarithmic slope d\log N/d\log M ~ -1, is…
In this paper we compute predictions for the number of stellar collisions derived from analytic models based on the mean free path (MFP) approximation and compare them to the results of $N$-body simulations. Our goal is to identify the…
Star cluster formation is a major mode of star formation in the extreme conditions of interacting galaxies and violent starbursts. These newly-formed clusters are built from recycled gas, pre-enriched to various levels within the…
Massive stars reside predominantly in triples or higher-order multiples. Their lives can be significantly affected by three-body interactions, making it an important area of study in the context of massive star evolution. In this study we…
We explore the hypothesis that some high-velocity runaway stars attain their peculiar velocities in the course of exchange encounters between hard massive binaries and a very massive star (either an ordinary 50-100 Msun star or a more…
We present new analysis of 11 intermediate-age (1-2 Gyr) star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud based on Hubble Space Telescope imaging data. Seven of the clusters feature main sequence turnoff (MSTO) regions that are wider than can be…
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…
I present recent observations and analyses of star cluster formation in a wide variety of environments -- from young star clusters and super star clusters in normal actively star-forming spirals and irregulars to starbursting dwarfs and…
This paper studies the dynamical evolution of young stellar clusters with $N$ = 100 - 1000 members. We use N-body simulations to explore how evolution depends on system size $N$ and the initial conditions. Motivated by recent observations…
We present a new study of the spatial distribution and ages of the star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). To detect and estimate the ages of the star clusters we rely on the new fully-automated method developed by Bitsakis et…
We study the dynamical evolution of the young star cluster Arches and its dependence on the assumed initial stellar mass function (IMF). We perform many direct $N$-body simulations with various initial conditions and two different choices…
We analyze two new sets of coagulation calculations for solid particles orbiting within the terrestrial zone of a solar-type star. In models of collisional cascades, numerical simulations demonstrate that the total mass, the mass in 1 mm…
Stars form in dense, clustered environments, where feedback from newly formed stars eventually ejects the gas, terminating star formation and leaving behind one or more star clusters. Using the STARFORGE simulations, it is possible to…
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…
We present a high-resolution simulation of globular cluster formation in a galaxy merger. For the first time in such a simulation, individual star clusters are directly identified and followed on their orbits. We quantitatively compare star…
Although it has important ramifications for both the formation of star clusters and their subsequent dynamical evolution, rotation remains a largely unexplored characteristic of young star clusters (few Myr). Using multi-epoch spectroscopic…
Globular clusters which exhibit chemical and dynamical complexity have been suggested to be the stripped nuclei of dwarf galaxies (e.g., M54, $\omega$ Cen). We use $N$-body simulations of nuclear star clusters forming via the mergers of…
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…
To study the evolution of binary star clusters we have imaged 7 systems in the Small Magellanic Cloud with SOAR 4-m telescope using B and V filters. The sample contains pairs with well-separated components (d < 30 pc) as well as systems…