Related papers: Cluster Core Dynamics at the Galactic Center
Thin stellar discs on both galactic and nuclear, sub-kpc scales are believed to be fragile structures that would be easily destroyed in major mergers. In turn, this makes the age-dating of their stellar populations a useful diagnostics for…
We investigate the evolutionary nexus between the morphology and internal kinematics of the central regions of collisional, rotating, multi-mass stellar systems, with special attention to the spatial characterisation of the process of mass…
We have performed N-body simulations of poor clusters with enough particles to resolve the individual galaxies. The main cases of initial conditions are: (i) 50 equal mass galaxies; (ii) 60 galaxies with masses drawn from a Schechter…
We have performed fully self-consistent $N$-body simulations of star clusters near the Galactic center (GC). Such simulations have not been performed because it is difficult to perform fast and accurate simulations of such systems using…
A massive young star cluster, initially embedded in its parent molecular cloud, will spiral into the Galactic Center from $\lta 30m_6^{1/2}\pc$ during the life-time of its most massive stars, if the combined total mass is $\sim…
Observations of massive stars within the central parsec of the Galaxy show that, while most stars orbit within a well-defined disc, a significant fraction have large eccentricities and / or inclinations with respect to the disc plane. Here,…
We simulate the assembly of a massive rich cluster and the formation of its constituent galaxies in a flat, low-density universe. Our most accurate model follows the collapse, the star-formation history and the orbital motion of all…
Recent observations have shown that compact nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are present in up to 80% of galaxies. However, detailed studies of their dynamical and chemical properties are confined mainly to spiral galaxy hosts, where they are…
We present preliminary results of the application of a new sophisticated code which allows high precision integration of orbits of stars belonging to a dense stellar system moving in the vicinity of a massive black hole. This mimics the…
Using a set of ROSAT HRI deep pointings, we investigate the presence of small-scale structures in the central regions of clusters of galaxies. Our sample comprises 23 objects up to z=0.32, 13 of them known to host a cooling flow. Structures…
Utilizing a series of N-body simulations, we argue that gravitationally bound stellar clusters of modest population evolve very differently from the picture presented by classical dynamical relaxation theory. The system's most massive stars…
We review what has been learned recently using N-body simulations about the evolution of globular clusters. While simulations of star clusters have become more realistic, and now include the evolution of single and binary stars, the…
We use spectra observed with the integral-field spectrograph MUSE to reveal the central kinematics of the Galactic globular cluster Messier 80 (M80, NGC 6093). Using observations obtained with the recently commissioned narrow-field mode of…
Core radii of globular clusters in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds show an increasing trend with age. We propose that this trend is a dynamical effect resulting from the accumulation of massive stars and stellar-mass black holes at…
We propose a new approach to study the dynamical implications of mass models of clusters for the velocity structure of galaxies in the core. Strong and weak lensing data are used to construct the total mass profile of the cluster, which is…
We use direct N-body simulations to investigate the evolution of star clusters with large size-scales with the particular goal of understanding the so-called extended clusters observed in various Local Group galaxies, including M31 and…
The past few years have seen dramatic improvements in the scope and realism of star cluster simulations. Accurate treatments of stellar evolution, coupled with robust descriptions of all phases of binary evolution, have been incorporated…
A theory is developed for the dynamics of eccentric perturbations $[\propto \exp(\pm i\phi)]$ of a disk galaxy residing in a spherical dark matter halo and including a spherical bulge component. The disk is represented as a large number $N$…
Dense star clusters are spectacular self-gravitating stellar systems in our Galaxy and across the Universe - in many respects. They populate disks and spheroids of galaxies as well as almost every galactic center. In massive elliptical…
The "gravitational million-body problem," to model the dynamical evolution of a self-gravitating, collisional N-body system with ~10^6 particles over many relaxation times, remains a major challenge in computational astrophysics.…