Related papers: Forming Globular Cluster Systems Semi-analytically
We have studied globular cluster systems (GCSs) around elliptical galaxies in Hickson compact groups using multi-band deep, high quality images from Keck, VLT and CFHT. Analyzing the luminosity functions, specific frequencies, color and…
In this contribution, first results of deep VLT photometry (V,I) in the central region of the Hydra I and Centaurus galaxy clusters are presented. In both galaxy clusters, many star clusters have been identified down to the turnover…
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…
Galaxies in the early universe appear to have grown too big too fast, assembling into massive, monolithic objects more rapidly than anticipated in the hierarchical $\Lambda$CDM structure formation paradigm. The available photometric data…
Globular clusters (GCs) provide one way of determining when the most important periods of star formation in dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies occurred. Thus, they are also useful for comparing the star formation histories of dwarf and giant…
We demonstrate a significant (> 5-sigma) correlation between the mean color of metal-poor globular cluster (GC) systems and parent galaxy luminosity. A Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo method is introduced to find the mean color, and is…
The fraction of stellar mass contained in globular clusters (GCs), also measured by number as the specific frequency, is a fundamental quantity that reflects both a galaxy's early star formation and its entire merging history. We present…
Some of the most massive globular clusters of our Milky Way, such as for example omega-Centauri, show a mixture of stellar populations spanning a few Gyr in age and 1.5 dex in metallicities. In contrast, standard formation scenarios predict…
Most formation scenarios of globular clusters assume a molecular cloud as the progenitor of the stellar system. However, it is still unclear, how this cloud is transformed into a star cluster, i.e. how the destructive processes related to…
In hierarchical cosmologies the evolution of galaxy clustering depends both on cosmological quantities such as Omega and Lambda, which determine how dark matter halos form and evolve, and on the physical processes - cooling, star formation…
CFHT Megacam data in (g',r',i') are used to obtain deep, wide-field photometry of the globular cluster system (GCS) around M87. A total of 6200 GCs brighter than M_I = -8.5 are included in the study, essentially containing almost the entire…
The kinematical and spatial properties of the metal-rich globular clusters in the Galaxy ([Fe/H] > -0.8) indicates that these objects do not comprise a homogeneous population. Three subsystems are identified. The highest-mass clusters…
HIRES on the Keck I telescope has been used to measure the first radial velocities for stars belonging to eleven, heavily-reddened globular clusters in the direction of the inner Galaxy. The question of kinematic substructuring among the…
Traditionally globular clusters and dwarf spheroidal galaxies have been distinguished by using one or more of the following criteria: (1) mass, (2) luminosity, (3) size, (4) mass-to-light ratio and (5) spread in metallicity. However, a few…
Star formation in starbursts appears to be biased toward compact clusters, with up to 20% of all stars formed in them. Observations with HST show that many of these clusters have luminosities (-9 > Mv > -16), UBVI colors, and half-light…
One of the currently favored scenarios for the formation of globular clusters (GCs) with multiple stellar populations is that an initial massive stellar system forms (`first generation', FG), subsequently giving rise to gaseous ejecta which…
We probe the evolution of globular clusters that could form in giant molecular clouds within high-redshift galaxies. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the large and dense enough gas clouds assemble naturally in current hierarchical…
The discovery of a population of young galaxies at an epoch when the universe was about one tenth of its current age has shed new light on the question of when and how galaxies formed. Within the context of popular models this is the…
The QCD phase transition in the early universe may provide primordial black hole nuclei for globular clusters. We consider the accretion and star formation that follow, once 1000 solar mass nuclei have formed. When such a nucleus has…
Prompted by a new catalogue of M31 globular clusters, we have collected together individual metallicity values for globular clusters in the Local Group. Although we briefly describe the globular cluster systems of the individual Local Group…