ﻻ يوجد ملخص باللغة العربية
The discovery around the turn of the millenium of a population of very massive (M$_star$ > 2$times$10$^6$ M$_odot$) compact stellar systems (CSS) with physical properties (radius, velocity dispersion, stellar mass etc.) that are intermediate between those of the classical globular cluster (GC) population and galaxies led to questions about their exact nature. Recently a consensus has emerged that these objects, usually called ultra compact dwarfs (UCDs), are a mass-dependent mixture of high mass star clusters and remnant nuclei of tidally disrupted galaxies. The existence of genuine star clusters with stellar masses >10$^7$ M$_odot$ naturally leads to questions about the upper mass limit of the star cluster formation process. In this work we compile a comprehensive catalog of compact stellar systems, and reinforce the evidence that the true ancient star cluster population has a maximum mass of M$_star$ ~ 5$times$10$^7$ M$_odot$, corresponding to a stellar mass at birth of close to 10$^8$ M$_odot$. We then discuss several physical and statistical mechanisms potentially responsible for creating this limiting mass.
Modern radio spectrometers make measurement of polarized intensity as a function of Faraday depth possible. I investigate the effect of depolarization along a model line of sight. I model sightlines with two components informed by observations: a dif
The largest observed supermassive black holes (SMBHs) have a mass of M_BH ~ 10^{10} M_sun, nearly independent of redshift, from the local (z~0) to the early (z>6) Universe. We suggest that the growth of SMBHs above a few 10^{10} M_sun is prevented by
We use the James Clerk Maxwell Telescopes SCUBA-2 camera to image a 400 arcmin^2 area surrounding the GOODS-N field. The 850 micron rms noise ranges from a value of 0.49 mJy in the central region to 3.5 mJy at the outside edge. From these data, we co
We use the Arecibo legacy fast ALFA (ALFALFA) 21cm survey to measure the number density of galaxies as a function of their rotational velocity, $V_mathrm{rot,HI}$ (as inferred from the width of their 21cm emission line). Based on the measured velocit
It is widely accepted that the distribution function of the masses of young star clusters is universal and can be purely interpreted as a probability density distribution function with a constant upper mass limit. As a result of this picture the mass