The majority of Milky Way globular clusters (GCs) display a small, yet significant, amount of angular momentum, clearly detectable from line-of-sight and proper motion data sets. The origin of this angular momentum is still unknown, but its emergence may be linked to the primordial formation of GCs in the high-redshift universe.
In this talk, I will present 2 sets of direct N-body simulations...
Massive stars have a significant impact on the dynamical evolution of star clusters. They play a crucial role during star formation, as their radiation can push surrounding gas away and inhibit further star formation. Additionally, strong mass loss from massive stars via strong winds can rapidly reduce the gravitational potential of star clusters and trigger their fast expansion. Once these...
Each outcome of the four-body problem can be regarded as some variation of the three-body problem. For example, when two single stars are produced (the 2 + 1 + 1 outcome), each ejection event is modeled as its own three-body interaction by assuming that the ejections are well separated in time. For each outcome, we derive, using the density-of-states formalism, analytical distribution...
The 3-body problem poses a longstanding challenge in physics and celestial mechanics. Despite the impossibility of obtaining general analytical solutions, statistical theories have been developed based on the ergodic principle. This assumption is justified by chaos, which is expected to fully mix the accessible phase space of the 3-body problem.
We probed the presence of regular (i.e. non...
Recent observations with HST and Gaia deepened our understanding of the internal kinematics of star clusters. Motivated by those findings, we aim to gain theoretical insights into how various kinematic properties influence the overall dynamical development of these stellar systems. Through N-body simulations, we explore the effects of different initial velocity distributions, ranging from...
AMUSE, the Astrophysical Multipurpose Software Environment, has been around since 2009, and it has been used in many different projects. AMUSE offers users the ability to combine different specialised simulation codes in a single simulation, which makes it possible to simulate complex systems that require interaction between different physical aspects and/or scales. Topics AMUSE has been used...
Globular clusters (GCs) have multiple populations identified through abundance variations in a number of light elements. These populations also show, in some cases, differences in some dynamical properties such as their concentration, systemic rotation, and velocity anisotropy, differences that might still preserve partial memory of the initial configuration of the stellar populations. In this...
I will discuss how gas affects the evolution of multiple star systems in young star clusters and other gas-rich environments. In particular, gas can shrink and circularize wide binaries, potentially explaining observed changes in binary properties with star cluster age. Additionally, gas can trigger instabilities in multiple systems. Finally, gas may trigger the formation of binaries and...
The dynamical evolution of planet-like objects in star clusters is not easy observable in star clusters, and it still not possible in dense star clusters such as globular clusters. I will first introduce previous works that looked into the motion of these objects, and then I will numerically explore the dynamical evolution of such objects, varying the number density of the hosting star...
Stripped stars, also known as naked helium stars, are the helium cores of stars that have lost their hydrogen-rich outer layer. The recent discoveries of stripped stars have provided valuable insights into massive star evolution, as well as the evolution of stellar binaries. In my talk, I will present results from the rapid stellar evolution code METISSE, used within the binary population...
Pair-instability supernovae (PISNe) are explosions developing in the core of massive stars due to a thermonuclear, runaway process, ultimately leading to the total disruption of the progenitor.
They are expected to be the endpoint of the evolution of low-metallicity stars in the mass range between ~ 140 and 260 solar masses, and responsible for the existence of the upper mass gap in the black...
Canonical stellar evolution models from both population synthesis and detailed evolutionary codes may predict Very Massive Stars (VMS, defined as $M_{\rm ZAMS}$ > 100 M$_\odot$) to become red supergiants and expand sometimes even more than 10,000 R$_\odot$. At those masses we now know that the luminosity levels are high enough for stellar envelopes to eject mass through winds at...
