Related papers: Galactic nuclei formation and activity induced by …
Recent observations and stellar dynamics simulations suggest that thousand solar mass black holes can form in compact massive young star clusters. Any such clusters in the bulge of their host galaxy will spiral to the center within a few…
During galaxy mergers the gas falls to the center, triggers star formation, and feeds the rapid growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs). SMBHs respond to this fueling by supplying energy back to the ambient gas. Numerical studies suggest…
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…
This is an overview of nuclear star cluster observations, covering their structure, stellar populations, kinematics and possible connection to black holes at the centers of galaxies.
We present models of realistic globular clusters with post-Newtonian dynamics for black holes. By modeling the relativistic accelerations and gravitational-wave emission in isolated binaries and during three- and four-body encounters, we…
Runaway stellar collisions in dense star clusters are invoked to explain the presence of very massive stars or blue stragglers in the center of those systems. This process has also been explored for the first star clusters in the Universe…
The mere existence of multiple stellar generations in Milky Way globular clusters indicates that each generation was unable to stop star formation, that instead persisted unimpeded for several million years. This evidence argues for an…
If the stellar population of the bulge contains black holes formed in the final core collapse of ordinary stars with M \ga 30 M_{\odot}, then about 25,000 stellar mass black holes should have migrated by dynamical friction into the central…
Various past theoretical considerations and observational efforts suggest the presence of a population of stellar-mass black holes in the innermost parsec of the Galactic centre. In this Letter, we investigate the impact of these black…
Young, massive star clusters are the most notable and significant end products of violent star-forming episodes triggered by galaxy collisions, mergers, and close encounters. Their contribution to the total luminosity induced by such…
Nuclear stellar cluster (NSCs) are known to exist around massive black holes (MBHs) in galactic nuclei. Two formation scenarios were suggested for their origin: Build-up of NSCs and Continuous in-situ star-formation. Here we study the…
Massive star clusters observed in galaxy mergers are often suggested to be progenitors of globular clusters. To study this hypothesis, we performed the highest resolution simulation of a gas-rich galaxy merger so far. The formation of…
We propose a self-consistent model for globular cluster formation in, but not limited to, our Galaxy, based on the merger model of Mathews and Schramm (1993). Stars and star clusters form in bursts at the merging interfaces as protogalactic…
Central regions of superclusters are the ideal places where to study cluster merging phenomena: in fact the accretion activity is enhanced, as predicted by the cosmological simulations. In this paper I review the case-study of the Shapley…
Globular clusters in galaxies have a mutual feedback with the environment, which is tuned by their dynamical evolution. This feedback may be the explanation of various features of both the globular cluster system and the host galaxy.…
A number of theoretical and simulation results on star and structure formation in galaxy interactions and mergers is reviewed, and recent hydrodynamic simulations are presented. The role of gravity torques and ISM turbulence in galaxy…
The present work extends and deepens previous examinations of the evolution of globular cluster orbits in elliptical galaxies, by means of numerical integrations of a wide set of orbits in 5 self-consistent triaxial galactic models…
Close encounters and physical collisions between stars in young dense clusters can result in new channels for stellar evolution, and may lead to the formation of very massive stars and black holes via runaway merging. We present some…
A brief overview of the properties of massive star clusters in early-type galaxies is given. All ellipticals (with only one known exception) host massive star clusters in the form of globular clusters, suggesting that their formation is…
Galactic globular cluster stars exhibit abundance patterns which are not shared by their field counterparts. It is clear from recent spectroscopic observations of GC turnoff stars that these abundance anomalies were already present in the…