A theory for the origin of globular clusters

Details A theory for the origin of globular clusters A theory for the origin of globular clusters

Nov 1985

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1985apj...298...18f&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 298, Nov. 1, 1985, p. 18-26.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

433

Galactic Evolution, Globular Clusters, Interstellar Gas, Molecular Clouds, Perturbation Theory, Red Shift, Virial Theorem

Scientific paper

The authors present a theory for the origin of globular clusters during the collapse of a protogalaxy. A thermal instability promotes the development of a two-phase structure in the gas when the cooling time is comparable to the free-fall time. The hot component, which remains near the virial temperature, compresses the cold component into discrete clouds with temperatures near 104K and mean densities in the range 1 - 10 M_sun;pc-3. It is shown that the initial amplitudes of the perturbations required to produce such clouds are of order 10%. When the abundance of heavy elements is less than 10-2Z_sun;, further cooling is inefficient and the minimum mass for gravitational instability is of order 106M_sun;. The authors compare these predictions with the observed properties of globular clusters and find satisfactory agreement, especially if there is some mass loss.

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