Related papers: The Globular Cluster Luminosity Function
The diffuse light in clusters of galaxies, or intracluster light, has attracted a lot of attention lately due to its potential in describing the assembly history of galaxy clusters and to explain the observed growth of the brightest cluster…
In the first part of this article, we review observations of the mass and luminosity functions of young and old star cluster systems. We also review some of the physical processes that may determine the characteristic mass of globular…
We review selected measurements of the galaxy luminosity function including the global field, the local group, the local sphere, nearby clusters (Virgo, Coma and Fornax) and clusters in general. We conclude that the overall cluster…
Globular clusters provide a unique probe of galaxy formation and evolution. Here I briefly summarize the known observational properties of globular cluster systems. One re-occurring theme is that the globular cluster systems of spirals and…
We investigated the optical properties of 7 clusters of galaxies observed in three colors over the range of absolute magnitudes -24 < M < -12. Our aim is to estimate the Luminosity Function and the total cluster luminosity of our sample in…
I review the Globular Cluster Luminosity Function (GCLF) with emphasis on recent observational data and theoretical progress. As is well known, the turn-over magnitude (TOM) is a good distance indicator for early-type galaxies within the…
Galaxy clusters as gravitational lenses play a unique role in astrophysics and cosmology: they permit mapping the dark matter distribution on a range of scales; they reveal the properties of high and intermediate redshift background…
I review recent and less recent work on globular cluster systems in early-type galaxies. Explaining their properties and possible assembly scenarios, touches on a variety of astrophysical topics from cluster formation itself to galaxy…
In this overview of the key properties of globular cluster (GC) systems I show that the GCs in elliptical and spiral host galaxies have more in common than previously thought. After contrasting these properties I briefly comment on GC…
There is compelling observational evidence that globular clusters (GCs) are quite complex objects. A growing body of photometric results indicate that the evolutionary sequences are not simply isochrones in the observational plane -as…
We discuss implications of the fundamental plane parameters of clusters of galaxies derived from combined optical and X-ray data of a sample of 78 nearby clusters. In particular, we investigate the dependence of these parameters on the…
The relations between the luminosities $M_{V}$, the metallicities $[Fe/H]$, the Galactocentric radii $R$, and the central concentration indices $c$ of Galactic globular clusters are discussed. It is found that the most luminous clusters…
We study luminosities of millisecond pulsars in globular clusters by fitting the observed luminosity distribution with single and double power laws. We use simulations to model the observed distribution as the brighter part of some parent…
Principal component method is used to study galactic globular clusters in 7- and 8-axis space of structural parameters. It is shown that the manifold properties of clusters with this set of parameters is determined mainly by two independent…
This paper is aimed at emphasizing some of the main hints, constraints and difficulties we currently have in trying to understand how globular clusters formed, along with their multiple stellar generations, an issue that must be regarded as…
Gravitational lensing in clusters of galaxies is an efficient tool to probe the mass distribution of galaxies and clusters, high redshift objects thanks to the gravitational amplification, and the geometry of the universe. We review some…
Globular clusters are among the first objects used to establish the distance scale of the Universe. In the 1970-ies it has been recognized that the differential magnitude distribution of old globular clusters is very similar in different…
We consider the observational signature of the dynamical effects on the luminosity function of globular clusters. For the three best studied systems, in Milky Way, M31, and M87, there is a statistically significant difference between the…
Determining the structure of galaxy clusters is essential for an understanding of large scale structure in the universe, and may hold important clues to the identity and nature of dark matter particles. Moreover, the core dark matter…
Recent developments relevant to the formation of globular cluster systems in galaxies are discussed, including (1) The age distribution of the oldest Milky Way clusters, (2) Subgroups and possible accretion and merger remnants in the…