ROTATING GLOBULAR CLUSTERS

N-body Models of Rotating Globular Clusters

We have studied the dynamical evolution of rotating globular clusters with direct N -body models. Our initial models are rotating King models; we obtained results for both equal-mass systems and systems composed out of two mass components. Previous investigations using a Fokker-Planck solver have revealed that rotation has a noticeable influence on stellar systems like globular clusters, which ...

CNO enrichment by rotating AGB stars in globular clusters

Context. AGB stars have long been held responsible for the important star-to-star variations in light elements observed in Galactic globular clusters. Aims. We analyse the main impacts of a first generation of rotating intermediate-mass stars on the chemical properties of secondgeneration globular cluster stars. The rotating models were computed without magnetic fields and without the effects o...

Binaries in Globular Clusters

Binary stars in a globular cluster (hereafter, GC) may be primordial (i.e. formed along with the cluster), or the result of cluster dynamics. “Dynamical” binaries can result from conservative threebody encounters (e.g. Spitzer, 1987) if a third star can carry away enough kinetic energy to leave two others bound, or from dissipative two-body encounters, if two stars happen to pass within a few s...

Mergers of Globular Clusters

Modelling individual globular clusters

Astronomers have constructed models of globular clusters for over 100 years. These models mainly fall into two categories: (i) static models, such as King’s model and its variants, and (ii) evolutionary models. Most attention has been given to static models, which are used to estimate mass-to-light ratios and mass segregation, and to combine data from proper motions and radial velocities. Evolu...