Related papers: On the Evolution of the Globular Cluster Luminosit…
The dependence of the luminosity function of cluster galaxies on the evolutionary state of the parent cluster is still an open issue, in particular as concern the formation/evolution of the brightest cluster galaxies. We plan to study the…
The cluster and field luminosity functions (LFs) determined on large homogeneous samples (N>2200 galaxies each) are almost indistinguishable, down to M^*+4 in the r and i filters, hence suggesting that the effect of the cluster environment…
This review concentrates almost entirely on globular star clusters. It emphasises the increasing realisation that few of the traditional problems of star cluster astronomy can be studied in isolation: the influence of the Galaxy affects…
We investigate the universality of the globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) and the use of this function as an extragalactic distance indicator. Previous studies have found an offset between GCLF distances and those obtained with…
The evolution of the X-ray luminosity function of clusters of galaxies has been measured to z=0.9 using over 150 X-ray selected clusters discovered in the WARPS survey. We find no evidence for evolution of the luminosity function at any…
Surface brightness evolution has been detected in elliptical galaxies (consistent with passive evolution models of old stellar populations) and in disk galaxies (presumably due to enhanced star-formation rates). The rates of evolution in…
We present the results of a comprehensive analysis of the structure and kinematics of six Galactic globular clusters. By comparing the results of the most extensive photometric and kinematical surveys available to date with suited dynamical…
Globular cluster systems (GCS) frequently show a bi-modal distribution of the cluster integrated colours. This work explores the arguments to support the idea that the same feature is shared by the diffuse stellar population of the galaxy…
The globular cluster (GC) systems of the Milky Way and of our neighboring spiral galaxy, M31, comprise 2 distinct entities, differing in 3 respects. 1. M31 has young GCs, ages from ~100 Myr to 5 Gyr old, as well as old globular clusters. No…
I review the characteristics of cluster populations in other galaxies, with particular emphasis on young star clusters and a comparison with the (known) open cluster population of the Milky Way. Young globular cluster-like (compact,…
Galactic globular clusters, which are ancient building blocks of our Galaxy, represent a very interesting family of stellar systems in which some fundamental dynamical processes have taken place on time scales shorter than the age of the…
New VRI photometry is presented for the globular clusters in the innermost 140'' of the M87 halo. The results are used to discuss several issues concerning the formation and evolution of globular cluster systems in supergiant ellipticals…
We investigate the properties of globular clusters in a galaxy cluster, using the particle tagging method with a semi-analytical approach in a cosmological context. We assume globular clusters form from dark matter halo mergers and their…
Properties of 53 globular cluster systems are investigated. Strong correlations are found between parent galaxy luminosity and both the slope of the radial density profile for clusters and the width of the cluster color (metallicity)…
We find clusters and superclusters of galaxies using the Data Release 1 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We determine the luminosity function of clusters and find that clusters in a high-density environment have a luminosity a factor of ~5…
Globular star clusters that formed at the same cosmic time may have evolved rather differently from a dynamical point of view (because that evolution depends on the internal environment) through a variety of processes that tend…
We investigate the unusually rich cluster system of NGC4636 with wide-field Washington photometry. The globular cluster luminosity function can be followed roughly 1 mag beyond the turn-over magnitude. This corresponds to a distance modulus…
We present a detailed analysis of the internal dynamics of multiple stellar populations (MPs) in 28 Galactic Globular Clusters (GCs) across a wide field of view, extending from the innermost regions to the clusters' outskirts. Using…
Globular clusters (GCs) are evolved stellar systems containing entire populations of millisecond pulsars (MSPs), which are efficient gamma-ray emitters. Observations of this emission can be used as a powerful tool to explore the dynamical…
We analyse a sample of about 2000 galaxies in 40 regular clusters, to look for evidence of segregation with respect to galaxy luminosities and morphological types. We find evidence of luminosity segregation for galaxies brighter than $M_R <…