Related papers: Mapping Tidal Streams around Galactic Globular Clu…

The tidal tails of globular clusters have been shown to be sensitive to the external tidal field. We investigate how Galactic globular clusters with observed tails are affected by satellite dwarf galaxies by simulating tails in galaxy…

If the Galaxy formed hierarchically through the accretion of smaller satellite galaxies we might hope to find signatures of this in the halo's phase-space distribution. I review theoretical ideas about what form these signatures should…

Using high-resolution collisionless N-body simulations we study the properties of tidal tails formed in the immediate vicinity of a two-component dwarf galaxy evolving in a static potential of the Milky Way (MW). The stellar component of…

Ultra compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) have similar properties as massive globular clusters or the nuclei of nucleated galaxies. Recent observations suggesting a high dark matter content and a steep spatial distribution within groups and…

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…

The Milky Way galaxy is observed to have multiple components with distinct properties, such as the bulge, disk, and halo. Unraveling the assembly history of these populations provides a powerful test to the theory of galaxy formation and…

We study the stellar content in the tidal tails of three nearby merging galaxies, NGC 520, NGC 2623, and NGC 3256, using BVI imaging taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The tidal tails in all…

We present our study of the 2-D structures of the tidal tails associated with 20 galactic globular clusters, structures obtained by using the wavelet transform to detect weak structures at large scale and filter the strong background noise…

Globular clusters in the outer halo (R_gc > 15 kpc) are found to be systematically fainter than those at smaller Galactocentric distances. Within the outer halo the compact clusters with half-light radii R_h < 10 pc are only found at R_gc <…

We identify new structures in the halo of the Milky Way Galaxy from positions, colors and magnitudes of five million stars detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Most of these stars are within 1.26 degrees of the celestial equator. We…

We report the discovery in our HST ACS B, V, and I images of NGC 4449 of a globular cluster (GC) which appears associated with two tails of blue stars. The cluster is massive (M~1.7x10^6 M_sun) and highly flattened (\epsilon~0.24). From the…

We discuss how to use tidal streams from globular clusters to measure the mass distribution of the Milky Way. Recent proper motion determinations for globular clusters from plate measurements and Hipparcos astrometry provide several good…

The existence of globular clusters (GCs) in a few satellite galaxies, and their absence in majority of dwarf galaxies, present a challenge for models attempting to understand the origins of GCs. In addition to GC presence appearing…

We suggest that the majority of the "young", so--called "second parameter" globular clusters (SPGCs) have originated in the outer Galactic halo due to a process other than a tidal disruption of the dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies. Basic…

In a series of two papers, we test the primordial scenario of globular cluster formation using results of high-resolutions N-body simulations. In this first paper we study the initial relaxation of a stellar core inside a live dark matter…

We examine the longitudinal distribution of the stars escaping from a cluster along tidal tails. Using both theory and simulations, we show that, even in the case of a star cluster in a circular galactic orbit, when the tide is steady, the…

The dwarf satellite galaxies in the Local Group are generally considered to be hosted in dark matter subhalos that survived the disruptive processes during infall onto their host halos. It has recently been argued that if the majority of…

Simulations are run with and without a normal cold dark matter sub-halo population below 4x10^8 M_sun to examine the role of the lower mass sub-halos in the creation of density variations, "gaps", within thin tidal star streams. Dense star…

This review focuses on how galaxies and their globular cluster systems form. I first discuss the now fairly convincing evidence that some globular clusters form in galaxy starbursts/mergers. One way these observations are valuable is they…

We use deep V-band surface photometry of five of the brightest elliptical galaxies in the Virgo cluster to search for diffuse tidal streams, shells, and plumes in their outer halos (r > 50 kpc). We fit and subtract elliptical isophotal…