Related papers: The Globular Cluster Luminosity Function: New Prog…
We present the results of our detailed WFPC2-based photometric study of the globular cluster systems (GCS) of over 60 elliptical and S0 galaxies. Approximately 50\% of the GCSs of ellipticals, and at least 15-20\% of S0s reveal bimodality…
Star luminosity function, already recognized as an age indicator for old galactic globular clusters, can be used to contrains the age of younger stellar systems like the nearby dwarfs spheroidal Leo I. We compare the observed luminosity…
The initial and present-day mass functions (ICMF and PDMF, respectively) of the Galactic globular clusters (GCs) are constructed based on their observed luminosities, the stellar evolution and dynamical mass-loss processes, and 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…
Star clusters in 6 nearby spiral galaxies are examined using archive images from HST/WFPC2. The galaxies have previously been studied from the ground and some of them are known to possess rich populations of "young massive clusters" (YMCs).…
Properties of 53 globular cluster systems are investigated. Strong correlations are found between parent galaxy luminosity and both the slope of the radial density profile for clusters and the width of the cluster color (metallicity)…
We investigate the globular cluster (GC) system scaling parameters as a function of galaxy mass, i.e. specific frequency (S_N), specific luminosity (S_L), specific mass (S_M), and specific number (^T) of GCs. We sample the entire range in…
The epochs of cosmic dawn and reionisation present promising avenues for understanding the role of dark matter (DM) in our cosmos. The first galaxies that populated the Universe during these eras resided in DM halos that were much less…
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…
Using a new spectroscopic sample and methods accounting for spectroscopic sampling fractions that vary in magnitude and surface brightness, we present R-band galaxy luminosity functions (GLFs) for six nearby galaxy clusters with redshifts…
Massive clusters are now seen to form easily in interacting and merging galaxies, making these excellent environments for studying the properties of young clusters. New observations of the Antennae (NGC 4038/39) show that the most luminous…
Not all the light in galaxy groups and clusters comes from stars that are bound to galaxies. A significant fraction of it constitutes the so-called intracluster or diffuse light (ICL), a low surface brightness component of groups/clusters…
The luminosity function (LF) of young star clusters is often approximated by a power law function. For clusters in a wide range of galactic environments this has resulted in fit indices near -2, but on average slightly steeper. A…
The WFPC2 Camera on board HST has been used to obtain high-resolution images of NGC 3610, a dynamically young elliptical galaxy. These observations supersede shorter, undithered HST observations where an intermediate-age population of…
Globular clusters are the oldest conglomerates of stars in our Galaxy and can be useful laboratories to test theories from stellar evolution to cosmology. In this paper, we present a new method to estimate the absolute age of a globular…
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…
From as early as the 1930s, astronomers have tried to quantify the statistical nature of the evolution and large-scale structure of galaxies by studying their luminosity distribution as a function of redshift - known as the galaxy…
We use the conditional luminosity function (CLF), which gives the number of galaxies with luminosities in the range [L, L+dL] that reside in a halo of mass M, to link the distribution of galaxies to that of dark matter haloes. We seek the…
The global properties of all known Galactic globular clusters are examined. The relationship between the luminosities and the metallicities of Galactic globular clusters is found to be complex. Among luminous clusters there is a correlation…
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…