Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T07:04:48.312Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the Efficiency of Field Star Capture by Star Clusters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2007

S. Mieske
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str.2, 85748 Garching b. München, Germany email: [email protected], [email protected]
H. Baumgardt
Affiliation:
Argelander Institut für Astronomie, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

An exciting recent finding regarding scaling relations among globular clusters is the so-called ‘blue tilt’: clusters of the blue sub-population follow a trend of redder colour with increasing luminosity. In this contribution we estimate by means of collisional N-body simulations to which extent this trend can be explained by field star capture occurring over a Hubble time. We investigate star clusters with 103 to 106 stars. We find that the ratio between captured field stars and total number of clusters stars is very low (≲ 10−4), even for co-rotation of the star cluster in a cold disk. This holds for star clusters in the mass range of both open clusters and globular clusters. Therefore, field star capture is not a probable mechanism for creating the colour-magnitude trend of metal-poor globular clusters.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

Bekki, K., Yahagi, H., & Forbes, D. A. 2007, MNRAS, 377, 215Google Scholar
Cantiello, M., Blakeslee, J. P., & Raimondo, G. 2007, astro-ph/0706.3943Google Scholar
Harris, W. E. et al. 2006, ApJ, 636, 90Google Scholar
Mieske, S. et al. 2006, ApJ, 653, 193CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mieske, S. & Baumgardt, H. 2007, A&A in press, arXiv:0709.1328Google Scholar
Spitler, L. R. et al. 2006, AJ, 132, 1593CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strader, J., Brodie, J. P., Spitler, L., & Beasley, M. A. 2006, AJ, 132, 2333CrossRefGoogle Scholar