相关论文: The Birth, Evolution and Death of Star Clusters

Open clusters (OCs) are infrequent survivors of embedded clusters gestated in molecular clouds. Up to now, little is known about the initial conditions for the formation of OCs. Here, we studied this issue using high-precision astrometric…

The self-enrichment of massive star clusters by p-processed elements is shown to increase significantly with increasing gas density as a result of enhanced star formation rates and stellar scatterings compared to the lifetime of a massive…

Stars are usually formed in clusters in the dense cores of molecular clouds. These embedded clusters show a wide variety of morphologies from hierarchical clusters with substructure to centrally condensed ones. Often they are elongated and…

In young star clusters, the density can be high enough and the velocity dispersion low enough for stars to collide and merge with a significant probability. This has been suggested as a possible way to build up the high-mass portion of the…

Globular clusters host complex stellar populations whose chemical signatures suggest early (3 Myr - 1 Gyr) retention and reprocessing of stellar ejecta, yet direct evidence for intracluster gas is lacking. Here we present a unified…

This paper addresses the questions of what we have learned about how and when dense star clusters form, and what studies of star clusters have revealed about galaxy formation and evolution. One important observation is that globular…

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 have modeled in detail the evolution of rich open star clusters such as the Pleiades, Praesepe and Hyades, using simulations that include stellar dynamics as well as the effects of stellar evolution. The dynamics is modeled via direct…

Stars form by gravoturbulent fragmentation of interstellar gas clouds. The supersonic turbulence ubiquitously observed in Galactic molecular gas generates strong density fluctuations with gravity taking over in the densest and most massive…

Star formation is triggered in essentially three ways: (1) the pressures from existing stars collect and squeeze nearby dense gas into gravitationally unstable configurations, (2) random compression from supersonic turbulence makes new…

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…

Turbulence, self-gravity, and cooling convert most of the interstellar medium into cloudy structures that form stars. Turbulence compresses the gas into clouds directly and it moves pre-existing clouds around passively when there are…

Mergers of massive gas-rich galaxies trigger violent starbursts that - over timescales of $> 100$ Myr and regions $> 10$ kpc - form massive and compact star clusters comparable in mass and radii to Galactic globular clusters. The star…

We report on the identification of 54 embedded clusters around 217 massive protostellar candidates of which 34 clusters are new detections. The embedded clusters are identified as stellar surface density enhancements in the 2 $\mu$m All Sky…

We present a novel approach to the riddle of star cluster multiple populations. Stars form from molecular cores. But not all cores form stars. Following their initial compression, such 'failed' cores re-expand, rather than collapsing. We…

Stars form predominantly in clusters inside dense clumps of turbulent, magnetized molecular clouds. The typical size and mass of the cluster-forming clumps are \sim 1 pc and \sim 10^2 - 10^3 M_\odot, respectively. Here, we discuss some…

A young open cluster is a 2-phase system: an ensemble of stars move in a gaseous medium (the mother molecular cloud). The dynamics and thermodynamics of the system, and so its evolution and final fate (is it stable or unstable?), strongly…

Star clusters are formed in molecular clouds which are believed to be the birth places of most stars. From recent observational data, Lada & Lada 2003 estimated that only 4% to 7% of the clusters embedded inside molecular clouds have…

In this review, I present the case for how massive stars may form through stellar collisions. This mechanism requires very high stellar densities, up to 4 orders of magnitude higher than are observed in the cores of dense young clusters. In…

Observations have revealed that most stars are born in clusters. As these clusters typically contain more mass in gas than in stars, accretion can play an important role in determining the final stellar masses. Numerical simulations of gas…