A Unified N-Body and Statistical Treatment of Stellar Dynamics. III. Early Postcollapse Evolution of Globular Clusters
Abstract
The period immediately following the core collapse phase in the evolution of a globular cluster is studied using a hybrid N-body/Fokker-Planck stellar dynamical code. Several core oscillations of the type predicted in earlier work are seen. The oscillations are driven by the formation, hardening, and ejection of binaries by three-body processes, and appear to decay on a timescale of about 10 to the 7th yr, for the choice of 'typical' cluster parameters made here. There is no evidence that they are gravothermal in nature. The mechanisms responsible for the decay are discussed in some detail. The distribution of hard binaries produced by the oscillations is compared with theoretical expectations and the longer term evolution of the system is considered.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- August 1986
- DOI:
- 10.1086/164400
- Bibcode:
- 1986ApJ...307..126M
- Keywords:
-
- Globular Clusters;
- Many Body Problem;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Stellar Motions;
- Binary Stars;
- Collapse;
- Stellar Cores;
- Stellar Oscillations;
- Astrophysics;
- CLUSTERS: GLOBULAR;
- NUMERICAL METHODS;
- STARS: STELLAR DYNAMICS