The Promiscuous Nature of Stars in Clusters

Abstract

The recent availability of special purpose computers designed for calculating gravitational interactions of N-bodies at extremely high speed has provided the means to model globular clusters on a star-by-star basis for the first time. By endeavouring to make the N-body codes that operate on these machines as realistic as possible, the addition of stellar evolution being one example, much is being learnt about the interaction between the star cluster itself and the stars it contains. A fascinating aspect of this research is the ability to follow the orbits of individual stars in detail and to document the formation of observed exotic systems. This has revealed that many stars within a star cluster lead wildly promiscuous lives, interacting, often intimately and in rapid succession, with a variety of neighbours.

15 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (6)

• The Gravitational Million-Body Problem
• High Resolution X-ray Imaging of a Globular Cluster Core: Compact Binaries in 47Tuc
• Direct N-body Modelling of Stellar Populations: Blue Stragglers in M67
• Scaling of N-body calculations
• Free-Floating Planets: Not So Surprising
• The blue straggler S1082: a triple system in the old open cluster M67

Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
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• The core binary fractions of star clusters from realistic simulations
• A mass transfer origin for blue stragglers in NGC 188 as revealed by half-solar-mass companions
• An Extensive Census of HST Counterparts to Chandra X-ray Sources in the Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae. I. Astrometry and Photometry
• Gravitational Radiation from Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
• X-ray Studies of Two Neutron Stars in 47 Tucanae: Toward Constraints on the Equation of State
• White Dwarf Sequences in Dense Star Clusters
• Survey for Transiting Extrasolar Planets in Stellar Systems: I. Fundamental Parameters of the Open Cluster NGC 1245
• Modelling Collision Products of Triple-Star Mergers
• Ensemble Properties of the White Dwarf Population of the Old, Solar Metallicity Open Star Cluster Messier 67
• A Blue Straggler Binary System with at least Three Progenitors in the Core of a Globular Cluster?
• Erupting Dwarf Novae in the Large Magellanic Cloud