Gravitational interactions between globular and open clusters: an introduction

Abstract

Historically, it has been assumed that globular and open clusters never interact. However, recent evidence suggests that: globular clusters passing through the disk may be able to perturb giant molecular clouds (GMCs) triggering formation of open clusters and some old open clusters may be linked to accreted globulars. Here, we further explore the existence of possible dynamical connections between globular and open clusters, and realize that the most obvious link must be in the form of gravitational interactions. If open clusters are born out of GMCs, they have to move in similar orbits. If we accept that globulars can interact with GMCs, triggering star formation, it follows that globular and open clusters must also interact. Consistently, theoretical arguments as well as observational evidence, show that globular and open clusters certainly are interacting populations and their interactions are far more common than usually thought, especially for objects part of the bulge/disk. Monte Carlo calculations confirm that conclusion. Globular clusters seem capable of not only inducing formation of open clusters but, more often, their demise. Relatively frequent high speed cluster encounters or cluster harassment may also cause, on the long-term, slow erosion and tidal truncation on the globulars involved. The disputed object FSR 1767 (2MASS-GC04) may be, statistically speaking, the best example of an ongoing interaction.

24 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables. Revised to reflect final version published in Astrophysics and Space Science

References in corpus (21)

• The RAVE Survey: Constraining the Local Galactic Escape Speed
• On the fraction of star formation occurring in bound stellar clusters
• Spectroscopic and Photometric evidence of two stellar populations in the Galactic Globular Cluster NGC6121 (M4)
• Star cluster disruption by giant molecular clouds
• Two stellar-mass black holes in the globular cluster M22
• A systematic survey for infrared star clusters with |b|<20deg using 2MASS
• ON the Nature of the Local Spiral Arm of the Milky Way
• The distinction between star clusters and associations
• A New Catalog of Globular Clusters in the Milky Way
• On the current status of open-cluster parameters
• Space Velocities of Southern Globular Clusters. V. A Low Galactic Latitude Sample
• The Green Bank Telescope HII Region Discovery Survey: III. Kinematic Distances
• A New Reddening Law for M4
• Hierarchical star formation in the Milky Way disk
• The Nature of the Hyper-Runaway Candidate HIP 60350
• FSR1767 - a new globular cluster in the Galaxy
• The Space Motion of the Globular Cluster NGC 6397
• Two Populations of Open Star Clusters in the Galaxy
• NTT follow-up observations of star cluster candidates from the FSR catalogue
• On the efficiency of field star capture by star clusters
• Abundance variations in the globular cluster M71 (NGC 6838)

Cited by in corpus (6)

• The dynamical fate of binary star clusters in the Galactic tidal field
• The role of radial migration in open cluster and field star populations with Gaia dr3
• Milky Way globular clusters on cosmological timescales. III. Interaction rates
• An ongoing tidal capture in the Large Magellanic Cloud: the low-mass star cluster KMK88-10 captured by the massive globular cluster NGC 1835?
• Milky Way globular clusters on cosmological timescales. IV. Guests in the outer Solar System
• Search for possibly evolutionary linked globular and open clusters