Related papers: The dynamical evolution of stellar super-clusters
Young star clusters with masses similar to those of classical old globular clusters are observed not only in starbursts, mergers or otherwise disturbed galaxies, but also in normal spiral galaxies. Some young clusters with masses as high as…
Young massive clusters are dense aggregates of young stars that form the fundamental building blocks of galaxies. Several examples exist in the Milky Way Galaxy and the Local Group, but they are particularly abundant in starburst and…
We review progress in numerical simulations of star cluster formation. These simulations involve the bottom-up assembly of clusters through hierarchical mergers, which produces a fractal stellar distribution at young (~0.5 Myr) ages. The…
We review recent work that investigates the formation of stellar clusters, ranging in scale from globular clusters through open clusters to the small scale aggregates of stars observed in T associations. In all cases, recent advances in…
To study the evolution of binary star clusters we have imaged 7 systems in the Small Magellanic Cloud with SOAR 4-m telescope using B and V filters. The sample contains pairs with well-separated components (d < 30 pc) as well as systems…
We investigate the triggering of star formation and the formation of stellar clusters in molecular clouds that form as the ISM passes through spiral shocks. The spiral shock compresses gas into $\sim$100 pc long main star formation ridge,…
New Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet and optical imaging of the strong-lensing galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414 (z=0.335) reveals two centrally dominant elliptical galaxies participating in an ongoing major merger. The interaction is at…
Star clusters are observed to form in a highly compact state and with low star-formation efficiencies, and only 10 per cent of all clusters appear to survive to middle- and old-dynamical age. If the residual gas is expelled on a dynamical…
Young stars form on a wide range of scales, producing aggregates and clusters with various degrees of gravitational self-binding. The loose aggregates have a hierarchical structure in both space and time that resembles interstellar…
The evolution of young compact star clusters is studied using N-body simulations in which both stellar evolution and physical collisions between stars are taken into account. The initial conditions are chosen to represent R136, a compact…
Young and intermediate-age star clusters of both Magellanic Clouds exhibit complex color-magnitude diagrams. In addition to the extended main-sequence turn-offs (eMSTOs), commonly observed in star clusters younger than ~2 Gyr, the clusters…
Young clusters are observed to form in a variety of interacting galaxies and violent starbursts, a substantial number resembling the progenitors of the well-studied globular clusters in mass and size. By studying young clusters in merger…
We have obtained high-dispersion spectra for four massive star clusters in the dwarf irregular galaxies NGC 4214 and NGC 4449, using the HIRES spectrograph on the Keck I telescope. Combining the velocity dispersions of the clusters with…
We present Gemini optical spectroscopy of 23 young star clusters in NGC3256. We find that the cluster ages range are from few Myr to ~150 Myr. All these clusters are relatively massive (2--40)x 10^{5} \msun$ and appear to be of roughly 1.5…
Globular clusters are gravitationally bound stellar systems containing on the order of 100,000 stars. Due to the high stellar densities in the cores of these clusters, close encounters and even physical collisions between stars are…
Hinge clumps are luminous knots of star formation near the base of tidal features in some interacting galaxies. We use archival Hubble Space Telescope UV/optical/IR images and Chandra X-ray maps along with GALEX UV, Spitzer IR, and…
We numerically investigate dynamical and chemical properties of star clusters (open and globular clusters, and ``super star clusters'', SSC) formed in interacting/merging galaxies. The investigation is two-fold: (1) large-scale…
The study of cluster populations as tracer of galaxy evolution is now quite possible with 8 m class telescopes and modern instrumentation. The cluster population can be used as a good tracer of the star forming episodes undergone by the…
We follow the evolution of disk galaxies within a cluster that forms hierarchically in a cold dark matter N-body simulation. At a redshift z=0.5 we select several dark matter halos that have quiet merger histories and are about to enter the…
We study numerically the formation of dSph galaxies. Intense star bursts, e.g. in gas-rich environments, typically produce a few to a few hundred young star clusters, within a region of just a few hundred pc. The dynamical evolution of…