Albrecht Kamlah (Germany)
hf411(at)stud.uni-heidelberg.de
Dynamical evolution of dense star clusters with new stellar evolution of binary and single stars
Star clusters are the fossil remnants of galaxy evolution and are a key component in a hierarchy of structure formation in the Universe. Furthermore, these clusters are typically much denser than their host galaxies, such that close encounters between stars can lead to tightly bound binaries and even collisions between stars, which greatly complicates their dynamical and statistical treatment. The aim of the PhD dissertation is to investigate the close connection between state-of-the-art stellar evolution models and the global, dynamical evolution of such star clusters across cosmic time using high performance computing (HPC). Particular focus will be put on the abundance and evolution of Blue Stragglers (BSS), Cataclysmic Variables (CVs), X-ray binaries and double-degenerate binaries (DDs) consisting of combinations of black holes (BHs), neutron stars (NSs) and white dwarfs (WDs). Through the study of the latter objects, the project will also shed more light on the formation and evolution of gravitational wave sources and Intermediate-mass black hole growth (ImBH) in dense star clusters. For this purpose, I use highly optimised software, both accurate direct N-body modelling (NBODY6++GPU) and approximate
Monte-Carlo Fokker-Planck modelling (MOCCA, CMC). I will study three star clusters of progressively larger system size. The initial conditions are chosen with MOCCA and CMC such that these resemble star clusters observed by the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), ESO / VLT and Gaia in the Milky Way Halo and all of them (NGC 3201, NGC 104, NGC 5139) will be larger than any direct N-body simulations previously undertaken thus far.
Supervisor: Rainer Spurzem (ARI)
