Related papers: Are there brown dwarfs in globular clusters?
Luminous X-ray binaries (>1E34 erg/s, LMXBs) have a neutron star or black hole primary, and in globular clusters, most of these close binaries are expected to be have evolved from wider binaries through dynamical interactions with other…
We present a model for the formation of high-mass close binary systems in the context of forming massive stars through gas accretion in the centres of stellar clusters. A low-mass wide binary evolves under mass accretion towards a high-mass…
We derive the probability for a newly formed binary black hole (BBH) to undergo an eccentric gravitational wave (GW) merger during binary-single interactions inside a stellar cluster. By integrating over the hardening interactions such a…
Using King-Mitchie Models, we compute encounter rates between the various stellar species in the globular clusters $\omega$ Cen, and 47 Tuc. We also compute event rates for encounters between single stars and a population of primordial…
We have obtained the first measures of the mass accretion rates on stars of the Trapezium Cluster. They appear systematically lower than those of similar stars in the Taurus-Auriga association. Together with premature disk evaporation,…
We investigate the formation of binary stellar systems. We consider a model where a `seed' protobinary system forms, via fragmentation, within a collapsing molecular cloud core and evolves to its final mass by accreting material from an…
Binary black holes can form efficiently in dense young stellar clusters, such as the progenitors of globular clusters, via a combination of gravitational segregation and cluster evaporation. We use simple analytic arguments supported by…
Recent work on globular cluster systems in dwarf galaxies outside the Local Group is reviewed. Recent large imaging surveys with the Hubble Space Telescope and follow-up spectroscopy with 8-m class telescopes now allow us to compare the…
We report the statistical properties of stars, brown dwarfs and multiple systems obtained from the largest hydrodynamical simulation of star cluster formation to date that resolves masses down to the opacity limit for fragmentation (a few…
As the descendants of stars with masses less than 8 M$_{\odot}$ on the main sequence, white dwarfs provide a unique way to constrain planetary occurrence around intermediate-mass stars (spectral types BAF) that are otherwise difficult to…
We carry out high-speed photometry on 20 of the shortest-period, detached white dwarf binaries known and discover systems with eclipses, ellipsoidal variations (due to tidal deformations of the visible white dwarf), and Doppler beaming. All…
We present an end-to-end, two-phase model for the origin of globular clusters (GCs). In the model, populations of stellar clusters form in the high-pressure discs of high-redshift ($z>2$) galaxies (a rapid-disruption phase due to tidal…
We report here on two complementary population synthesis studies which relate directly to the formation and evolution of neutron star binaries in globular clusters. In the first, we compute the probability of retaining neutron stars in…
A search for spectroscopic binaries on the main sequence of the nearby globular cluster M4 has been undertaken with Argus, the multi-object spectrograph on the CTIO 4.0m telescope. A pair of radial velocities (median precision $\simeq$ 2…
We present the first high-angular resolution survey for multiple systems among very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the Hyades open cluster. Using the Keck\,II adaptive optics system, we observed a complete sample of 16 objects with…
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…
Almost all globular clusters (GCs) contain multiple populations consisting of stars with varying helium and light-element abundances. These populations include first-population stars, which exhibit similar chemical compositions to…
Globular cluster systems exhibit a bewildering variety of characteristics. No single scenario appears to be able to account for the wide range of specific globular cluster frequencies that are observed in galaxies of various types. The…
This paper reviews some of the observational properties of globular cluster systems, with a particular focus on those that constrain and inform models of the formation and dynamical evolution of globular cluster systems. I first discuss the…
Recent works have identified that rapidly rotating stars are predominantly binaries with separations of a few to a few tenths of au. This is a crucial range of separation that is often inaccessible to searches of binary stars, providing a…