Related papers: Young Globular Clusters and Dwarf Spheroidals
We investigate the old globular cluster (GC) population of 68 faint (Mv>-16 mag) dwarf galaxies located in the halo regions of nearby (<12 Mpc) loose galaxy groups and in the field environment based on archival HST/ACS images in F606W and…
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…
Globular clusters (GCs) act as massive probe particles traversing the dark matter halos of their host galaxies. Gravitational dynamical friction due to halo particles causes GC orbits to contract over time, providing a beyond-mean field…
We construct mock galaxy catalogues to analyse clustering properties of a Lambda cold dark matter (LCDM) universe within a cosmological dark matter simulation of sufficient resolution to resolve structure down to the scale of dwarfs. We…
Though it is generally assumed that massive molecular clouds are the progenitors of globular clusters, their detailed formation mechanism is still unclear. Standard scenarios based on the collapse of a smooth matter distribution suffer from…
At which masses does the regime of globular clusters end and the one of dwarf galaxies begin? And what separates these two classes of hot stellar systems? We examine to what extend very massive (>10^7 Mo) young star clusters are similar to…
The relics of building blocks that made stellar halo and bulge are yet to be discovered unless they were completely disrupted throughout the history of the Galaxy. Here we suggest that about 25% of the Milky Way globular clusters have…
The fraction of stellar mass contained in globular clusters (GCs), also measured by number as the specific frequency, is a fundamental quantity that reflects both a galaxy's early star formation and its entire merging history. We present…
We have determined the amount of stellar mass segregation in over 50 globular clusters and ultra-faint dwarf galaxy candidates based on deep HST and ground-based photometry. We find that the amount of mass segregation in globular clusters…
Stellar dynamical model globular clusters are introduced into reconstituted versions of the dark matter halos of the Via-Lactea II (VL-2) simulation to follow the star cluster tidal mass loss and stellar stream formation. The clusters…
We propose a simple model for the formation of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, in which stars are assumed to have formed from isothermal gas in hydrostatic equilibrium inside extended dark matter halos. After expelling the leftover gas, the…
The majority of the inhomogeneities in the chemical composition of Globular Cluster (GC) stars appear due to primordial enrichment by hot-CNO cycled material processed in stars belonging to a first stellar generation. Either massive AGB…
The dark matter dominated Fornax dwarf spheroidal has five globular clusters orbiting at ~1 kpc from its centre. In a cuspy CDM halo the globulars would sink to the centre from their current positions within a few Gyrs, presenting a puzzle…
The hierarchical mergers that form the haloes of dark matter surrounding galaxies, groups and clusters are not entirely efficient, leaving substantial amounts of dense substructure, in the form of stripped halo cores or `subhaloes',…
Most Globular Clusters (GC) show chemical inhomogeneities in the composition of their stars, apparently due to a second stellar generation (SG) in which the forming gas is enriched by hot-CNO cycled material processed in stars belonging to…
The Milky Way contains several distinct old stellar components that provide a fossil record of its formation. We can understand their spatial distribution and kinematics in a hierarchical formation scenario by associating the proto-galactic…
I assess the similarities and differences between the star-formation modes in quiescent spiral galaxies versus those in violent starburst regions, including galactic nuclei. As opposed to the quiescent star-formation mode, current empirical…
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 explore a scenario where metal poor globular clusters (GCs) form at the centres of their own dark matter halos in the early universe before reionization. This hypothesis leads to predictions about the abundance, distribution and…
Recent observations suggest that dwarf galaxies pervade the universe, for they have been encountered in large numbers in all the environments. However, we present evidence that suggests dwarf galaxies may be subject to strong dynamical…