Lecture 24: Globular clusters

Reading:

Binney and Merrifield, 4.5, 6.1
Binney and Tremaine, Chapter 7

Optional reading (textbooks):

Ashman, K. M., and Zepf, S. E. 1998, Globular cluster systems (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) - a short introduction to globular clusters. Mostly observations but some theory.

Spitzer, L. 1987, Dynamical evolution of globular clusters (Princeton: Princeton University Press) - the standard reference on globular cluster dynamics, though now somewhat out of date

Optional reading (reviews and conferences):

Harris, W. E. 1991, ARAA 29, 543 - globular clusters in other galaxies

Djorgovski, S. G., and Meylan, G. 1993, Structure and dynamics of globular clusters (San Francisco: ASP)

Meylan, G., and Heggie, D. C. 1997, A&A Rev 8, 1

Goodman, J., and Hut, P., eds. 1985, Dynamics of star clusters - this is now seriously out-of-date, but contains unique English translations of two fundamental papers originally published only in Russian: Ambartsumian (1938) on the evaporation of star clusters, and Antonov (1962) on the gravothermal catastrophe.

Optional reading (papers):

Djorgovski, S., and King, I. R. 1986, ApJ 305, L61 - globular clusters with and without collapsed cores

Lynden-Bell, D., and Wood, R. 1968, MNRAS 138, 495 - the clearest and most colorful explanation of the gravothermal catastrophe.

Henon, M. 1961, Ann d'Astrophys 24, 369 - as usual Henon was at least ten years ahead of his time. This paper contains the first numerical simulations of globular cluster evolution, the first evidence of core collapse, the first recognition that core collapse led to an infinite central density with outward heat flow determined by a heat source such as binary stars, and the first models of post-collapse structure. In French, unfortunately.

Cohn, H. 1979, ApJ 234, 1036 - good description of a Fokker-Planck code for following globular cluster evolution, based on his Princeton thesis.

Goodman, J. 1989, in Dynamics of dense stellar systems, ed. D. Merritt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 183 - a very clear review of globular cluster evolution.

Goodman, J. 1987, ApJ 313, 576 - analytic investigation of gravothermal oscillations

Binary stars in clusters:

Heggie, D. C. 1975, MNRAS 173, 729 - a classic 60-page paper on the evolution of binaries due to encounters with passing stars

Bahcall, J. N., Hut, P., and Tremaine, S. 1985, ApJ 290, 15 - a discussion of the distinction between diffusive and catastrophic disruption. Beware that the conclusion about the maximum mass of disk objects is wrong (seeWasserman, I., and Weinberg, M. D. 1987, ApJ 312, 390)

Quinlan, G. D. 1996, NewA 1, 35 - the best recent study of the dynamical evolution of binaries in clusters

Fabian, A. C., Pringle, J. E., and Rees, M. J. 1995, MNRAS 172, 15p - the original discussion of tidal capture binaries
Kochanek, C. 1992, ApJ 385, 604 - re-analysis of the efficiency of tidal capture
Mardling, R. 1995, ApJ 450, 722 and 732 - chaotic evolution of the orbits of tidal-capture binaries
Gould, A. 2003, astro-ph/0307437 - use of binary stars to rule out MACHOs

Links:

Milky Way globular cluster catalog

Gravothermal oscillations in an N-body integration, from Makino, J. 1996, ApJ 471, 796

Chaos in gravothermal oscillations, from Breeden, J. L., and Cohn, H. N. 1995, ApJ 448, 672