Astronomy and Astrophysics Seminars

Understanding the Milky Way Globular Clusters

by Dr. Sourav Chatterjee (University of Florida, USA)

Thursday, April 10, 2014 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at Colaba Campus ( DAA Seminar Room A269 )
TIFR
Description
Studying the evolution of globular clusters is of great interest for a variety of  branches in astrophysics and cosmology. The high masses and stellar densities make them important targets for Galactic and extragalactic astronomy, and hotbeds for strong dynamical encounters facilitating the formation of several exotic sources. Their old ages provide a direct window into the major star formation episodes in the early universe. Until recently our
numerical understanding for these systems was either limited by the number of stars simulations can treat or by omission of some physical processes. Northwestern group's Hénon-type Monte Carlo code CMC can lift these limitations and allows creation of star-by-star cluster models that can be directly compared with the observational data. I will present our latest understanding of how these clusters evolve as a whole, explain bulk properties of the Milky Way globular clusters, and identify formation channels for some resolved exotic stellar populations.