335 citations · 8.3k across the 147 of their papers we have counts for
43 papers · 1 filter
On the origin of eccentricities among extrasolar planets
Daniel Malmberg, Melvyn B. Davies
Most observed extrasolar planets have masses similar to, but orbits very different from, the gas giants of our solar system. Many are much closer to their parent stars than would h…
Red giant stellar collisions in the Galactic Centre
James E. Dale, Melvyn B. Davies, Ross P. Church +1
We show that collisions with stellar--mass black holes can partially explain the absence of bright giant stars in the Galactic Centre, first noted by Genzel et al, 1996. We show th…
Dynamics of galactic nuclei: Mass segregation and collisions
Marc Freitag, James E. Dale, Ross P. Church +1
Massive black holes (MBHs) with a mass below ~ 1e7 Msun are likely to reside at the centre of dense stellar nuclei shaped by 2-body relaxation, close interactions with the MBH and…
The nature of hypervelocity stars as inferred from their galactic trajectories
Karl M. Svensson, Ross P. Church, Melvyn B. Davies
We have computed the galactic trajectories of twelve hypervelocity stars (HVSs) under the assumption that they originated in the Galactic Centre. We show that eight of these twelve…
The effect of stellar-mass black holes on the structural evolution of massive star clusters
A. D. Mackey, M. I. Wilkinson, M. B. Davies +1
We present the results of realistic N-body modelling of massive star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds, aimed at investigating a dynamical origin for the radius-age trend observed…
Progenitors of Long Gamma-ray Bursts
Melvyn B. Davies, Andrew J. Levan, Josefin Larsson +2
Pinpointing the progenitors of long duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) remains an extremely important question, although it is now clear that at least a fraction of LGRBs originate…
Close encounters in young stellar clusters: implications for planetary systems in the solar neighbourhood
Daniel Malmberg, Francesca De Angeli, Melvyn B. Davies +3
The stars that populate the solar neighbourhood were formed in stellar clusters. Through N-body simulations of these clusters, we measure the rate of close encounters between stars…
A new constraint for gamma-ray burst progenitor mass
Josefin Larsson, Andrew J. Levan, Melvyn B. Davies +1
Recent comparative observations of long duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) and core collapse supernovae (cc SN) host galaxies demonstrate that these two, highly energetic transient…
The instability of planetary systems in binaries: how the Kozai mechanism leads to strong planet-planet interactions
Daniel Malmberg, Melvyn B. Davies, John E. Chambers
In this letter we consider the evolution of a planetary system around a star inside a wide binary. We simulate numerically the evolution of the planetary orbits for both co-planar…
A new type of long gamma--ray burst
Andrew King, Emma Olsson, Melvyn B. Davies
We consider gamma--ray bursts produced by the merger of a massive white dwarf with a neutron star. We show that these are likely to produce long--duration GRBs, in some cases defin…
Soft Gamma Repeaters and Short Gamma Ray Bursts: making magnetars from WD-WD mergers
R. Chapman, A. J. Levan, G. A. Wynn +4
Recent progress on the nature of short duration Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) has shown that a fraction of them originate in the local universe. These systems may well be the result of g…
The MODEST questions: challenges and future directions in stellar cluster research
Melvyn B. Davies, Pau Amaro-Seoane, Cees Bassa +7
We present a review of some of the current major challenges in stellar cluster research, including young clusters, globular clusters, and galactic nuclei. Topics considered include…
Neutron star binaries and long duration gamma-ray bursts
Andrew J. Levan, Melvyn B. Davies, Andrew R. King
Cosmological long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) are thought to originate from the core collapse to black holes of stripped massive stars. Those with sufficient rotation form a…
Young stars in the Galactic Centre: a potential intermediate-mass star origin
L. M. Dray, A. R. King, M. B. Davies
There has been recent speculation (Davies & King 2005) that the cores of intermediate-mass stars stripped of their envelopes by tidal interaction with the supermassive black hole i…
Collisions and close encounters involving massive main-sequence stars
James E. Dale, Melvyn B. Davies
We study close encounters involving massive main sequence stars and the evolution of the exotic products of these encounters as common--envelope systems or possible hypernova proge…
Short GRBs in old populations: Magnetars from WD-WD mergers
Andrew J. Levan, Graham A. Wynn, Robert Chapman +4
Recent progress on the nature of short duration gamma-ray bursts has shown that a fraction of them originate in the local universe. These systems may well be the result of giant fl…
An origin for short g-ray bursts unassociated with current star formation
S. D. Barthelmy, G. Chincarini, D. N. Burrows +28
Two short (<2 s) g-ray bursts (GRBs) have recently been localized and fading afterglow counterparts detected. The combination of these two results left unclear the nature of the ho…
Possible evidence for the ejection of a supermassive black hole from an ongoing merger of galaxies
Martin G. Haehnelt, Melvyn B. Davies, Martin J. Rees
Attempts of Magain et al (2005) to detect the host galaxy of the bright QSO HE0450--2958 have not been successful. We suggest that the supermassive black hole powering the QSO was…
The stars of the galactic center
Melvyn B. Davies, Andrew R. King
We consider the origin of the so-called S stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the very center of the Galaxy. These are usually assumed to be massive main-sequence stars.…
Blue Stragglers as Stellar Collision Products: the Angular Momentum Question
Alison Sills, Tim Adams, Melvyn B. Davies
We investigate the structure and evolution of blue stragglers stars which were formed from direct stellar collisions between main sequence stars in globular clusters. In particular…
The ultimate outcome of black hole - neutron star mergers
Melvyn B. Davies, Andrew J. Levan, Andrew R. King
We present a simple, semi--analytical description for the final stages of mergers of black hole (BH) -- neutron star (NS) systems. Such systems are of much interest as gravitationa…
Relative Frequencies of Blue Stragglers in Galactic Globular Clusters: Constraints for the Formation Mechanisms
Giampaolo Piotto, Francesca De Angeli, Ivan R. King +7
We discuss the main properties of the Galactic globular cluster (GC) blue straggler stars (BSS), as inferred from our new catalog containing nearly 3000 BSS. The catalog has been e…
Blue straggler production in globular clusters
Melvyn B. Davies, Giampaolo Piotto, Francesca De Angeli
Recent HST observations of a large sample of globular clusters reveal that every cluster contains between 40 and 400 blue stragglers. The population does not correlate with either…
High Resolution Calculations of Merging Neutron Stars III: Gamma-Ray Bursts
Stephan Rosswog, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Melvyn B. Davies
Recent three dimensional, high-resolution simulations of neutron star coalescences are analysed to assess whether short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) could originate from such encounters…