Related papers: The White Dwarf Deficit in Open Clusters: Dynamica…
We show that the dearth of brown dwarfs in short-period orbits around Solar-mass stars - the brown dwarf desert - can be understood as a consequence of inward migration within an evolving protoplanetary disc. Brown dwarf secondaries forming…
A population of anomalous ultra-massive white dwarfs discovered with Gaia, often referred to as the Q branch, show high (multi-Gyr) cooling delays produced by exotic physical mechanisms. They are believed to be the products of stellar…
A significant fraction of white dwarfs (WDs) are observed to be polluted with metals despite high surface gravities and short settling times. The current theoretical model for this pollution is accretion of rocky bodies delivered to the WD…
The old, solar metallicity open cluster Messier 67 has long been considered a lynchpin in the study and understanding of the structure and evolution of solar-type stars. The same is arguably true for stellar remnants - the white dwarf…
White dwarfs are the burnt out cores of Sun-like stars and are the final fate of 97% of all stars in our Galaxy. The internal structure and composition of white dwarfs are hidden by their high gravities, which causes all elements, apart…
The contribution of white dwarfs of the different Galactic populations to the stellar content of our Galaxy is only poorly known. Some authors claim a vast population of halo white dwarfs, which would be in accordance with some…
With the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the Hubble Space Telescope, we have discovered in M4 (NGC 6121, C 1620-264) the first extensive sequence of cooling white dwarfs seen in a globular cluster. Adopting a distance modulus of…
We present the first detailed study of the properties (temperatures, gravities, and masses) of the NGC 6791 white dwarf population. This unique stellar system is both one of the oldest (8 Gyr) and most metal-rich ([Fe/H] ~ 0.4) open…
A novel way of looking at the evolution of star clusters is presented. With a dynamical temperature, given by the mean kinetic energy of the cluster stars, and a dynamical luminosity, which is defined as the kinetic energy of the stars…
Given the importance of white dwarfs (WDs) in many fields of modern astrophysics, the precise knowledge of the actual degree of accuracy of the associated theoretical predictions is a primary task. In the first paper of a series dedicated…
Several models have been advanced to explain the multiple stellar populations observed in globular clusters (GCs). Most models necessitate a large initial population of unenriched stars that provide the pollution for an enriched population,…
(Abridged) Objects with radii of 10 to 100 pc and masses in the range from 10^6 to 10^8 M_sun have been discovered during the past decade. These so-called ultra compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) constitute a transition between classical star…
We present N-body simulations of young substructured star clusters undergoing various dynamical evolutionary scenarios and examine the direct effects of interactions in the cluster on planetary systems. We model clusters initially in cool…
The origin of magnetic fields in white dwarfs remains a fundamental unresolved problem in stellar astrophysics. In particular, the very different fractions of strongly (exceeding 1 MG) magnetic white dwarfs in evolutionarily linked…
We consider a sample of about 50 distant galaxy clusters at z>0.15 (<z> about 0.3), each cluster having at least 10 galaxies with available redshift in the literature. We select member galaxies, analyze the velocity dispersion profiles, and…
We investigate the formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies in a high resolution, hydrodynamical cosmological simulation of a Milky Way sized halo and its environment. Our simulation includes gas cooling, star formation, supernova…
We consider a sample of 51 distant galaxy clusters at 0.15<z<0.9 (<z> about 0.3), each cluster having at least 10 galaxies with available redshift in the literature. We select member galaxies, analyze the velocity dispersion profiles, and…
Star clusters are fundamental building blocks of galaxies. Their formation is related to the density and pressure in progenitor molecular clouds and their environmental conditions. To understand better the dynamical processes driving star…
We compare the mass distribution of central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPN) with those of their progeny, white dwarfs (WD). We use a dynamical method to measure masses with an uncertainty of 0.02 M$_\odot$. The CSPN mass distribution is…
This chapter reviews the dynamical processes in young stellar clusters. The accretion of gas by individual stars affects the dynamics of the cluster, and the masses of the stars. Dynamical mass segregation cannot explain the degree of mass…