Related papers: White Dwarf Sequences in Dense Star Clusters
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…
Populations of massive stars are directly reflective of the physics of stellar evolution. Counting subtypes of massive stars and ratios of massive stars in different evolutionary states have been used ubiquitously as diagnostics of age and…
Observations and theoretical work suggest that globular clusters may be born with initially very large binary fractions. We present first results from our newly modified Monte-Carlo cluster evolution code, which treats binary interactions…
In this thesis we study several aspects of dynamical evolution of stellar clusters. The results of more than 200 simulations of single-mass star clusters with different initial total mass, half-mass radius and galactocentric distance, are…
Interacting galaxies favor the formation of star clusters but are also suspected to affect their evolution through an intense and rapidly varying tidal field. Treating this complex behaviour remains out-of-reach of (semi-)analytical…
Both simulations and observations indicate that stars form in filamentary, hierarchically clustered associations, most of which disperse into their galactic field once feedback destroys their parent clouds. However, during their early…
Binary stars are common in star clusters and galaxies, but the detailed effects of binary evolution are not taken into account in some colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) studies. This paper studies the CMDs of twelve globular clusters via…
How did the dwarf galaxy population of present-day galaxy clusters form and grow over time? We address this question by analysing the history of dark matter subhaloes in the Millennium-II cosmological simulation. A semi-analytic model…
We investigate the hypothesis that stars form in aggregates of binary systems and that the dynamical evolution of these aggregates leads to the observed properties of binary stars in the Galactic field. We assume that the initial…
We investigate the dynamical formation and evolution of binaries containing neutron stars in dense globular clusters. Our numerical simulations combine a simple Monte Carlo prescription for stellar dynamics, a sophisticated binary…
Classical Cepheid variable stars provide a unique probe to binary evolution in intermediate-mass stars over the course of several tens to hundreds of Myr. We studied the binary and multiple properties of Cepheids, assuming that all mid-B…
A quarter of DA white dwarfs are metal polluted, yet elements heavier than helium sink down through the stellar atmosphere on timescales of days. Hence, these white dwarfs must be currently accreting material containing heavy elements.…
Using N-body simulations we study the evolution of separate stellar populations in dwarf galaxies in the context of the tidal stirring scenario for the formation of dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies in the Local Group. The dwarf galaxies,…
We investigate the properties and evolution of star particles in two simulations of isolated spiral galaxies, and two galaxies from cosmological simulations. Unlike previous numerical work, where typically each star particle represents one…
We summarize the results of recent theoretical work on the dynamical evolution of globular clusters containing primordial binaries. Even a very small initial binary fraction (e.g., 10%) can play a key role in supporting a cluster against…
Massive star clusters are often used as tracers of galaxy formation and assembly. In order to do so, we must understand their properties at formation, and how those properties change with time, galactic environment, and galaxy assembly…
The dynamics of binary stars provides a unique avenue to gather insight into the study of the structure and dynamics of star clusters and galaxies. In this paper, we present the results of a set of $N$-body simulations aimed at exploring…
Circumstellar disks of planetary debris are now known or suspected to closely orbit hundreds of white dwarf stars. To date, both data and theory support disks that are entirely contained within the preceding giant stellar radii, and hence…
Star clusters are the building blocks of galaxies. They are composed of stars of nearly equal age and chemical composition, allowing us to use them as chronometers and as testbeds for gauging stellar evolution. It has become clear recently…
A White Dwarf (WD) star and a main-sequence companion may interact through their different stellar evolution stages. This sort of binary population has historically helped us improve our understanding of binary formation and evolution…