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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 stellar mass function and as a mechanism leading to the formation of one or two very massive stars (M > 150 Msun) through a collisional runaway. I quickly review the standard theory of stellar collisions, covering both the stellar dynamics of dense clusters and the hydrodynamics of encounters between stars. The conditions for collisions to take place at a significant rate are relatively well understood for idealised spherical cluster models without initial mass segregation, devoid of gas and composed of main-sequence (MS) stars. In this simplified situation, 2-body relaxation drives core collapse through mass segregation and a collisional phase ensues if the core collapse time is shorter than the MS lifetime of the most massive stars initially present. The outcome of this phase is still highly uncertain. A more realistic situation is that of a cluster still containing large amounts of interstellar gas from which stars are accreting. As stellar masses increase, the central regions of the cluster contracts. This little-explored mechanism can potentially lead to very high stellar densities but it is likely that, except for very rich systems, the contraction is halted by few-body interactions before collisions set in. A complete picture, combining both scenarios, will need to address many uncertainties, including the role of cluster sub-structure, the dynamical effect of interstellar gas, non-MS stars and the structure and evolution of merged stars.
The purpose of this research is to study the connection of global properties of eight young stellar clusters projected in the Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Large Public Survey disk area and their young stellar object population. The ana
Using Monte Carlo codes, we follow the collisional evolution of clusters in a variety of scenarios. We consider the conditions under which a cluster of main sequence stars may undergo rapid core collapse due to mass segregation, thus entering a phase
We present a detailed stellar population analysis of 27 massive elliptical galaxies within 4 very rich clusters at redshift z~0.2: A115, A655, A963 and A2111. Using the new, high-resolution stellar populations models developed in our group, we obtain
Star clusters appear to be the ideal environment for the assembly of neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) and black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries. These binaries are among the most interesting astrophysical objects, being potential sources of gravi
AIMS: The aim of this work is to understand whether there is a difference in the dispersion of discs around stars in high-density young stellar clusters like the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) according to the mass of the star. METHODS: Two types of si