The build-up and fate of self-gravitating systems in the Universe

Projektinformationen

THESYS

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 895174

DOI

10.3030/895174

Das Projekt endete am 1 November 2023

EK-Unterschriftsdatum 21 April 2020

Startdatum 1 September 2021

Enddatum 21 Dezember 2023

Finanziert unter

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Gesamtkosten

€ 196 707,84

EU-Beitrag

€ 196 707,84

Koordiniert durch

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - THESYS (The build-up and fate of self-gravitating systems in the Universe)

Berichtszeitraum: 2021-09-01 bis 2023-08-31

Zusammenfassung vom Kontext und den Gesamtzielen des Projekts

This MSCA action focuses on developing dynamical models to understand the large-scale evolution of disc galaxies and their stellar populations, as well as the dynamics of self-gravitating stellar structures like globular and nuclear star clusters on a parsec scale. This is timely because ongoing and upcoming surveys and instruments like Gaia, Gaia-ESO, APOGEE, GALAH, WEAVE, MOONS, 4MOST, LSST, ELT, and JWST are collecting and will continue gathering an unprecedented amount of information on the chemical composition, age, and phase-space distribution of stellar populations across various Galactic structures such as the Galactic Centre, globular clusters, their streams, and escapees. By combining expertise in dynamical modeling, Galactic dynamics, and stellar populations, this project aims to prepare for fully exploiting the upcoming data releases to reconstruct the dynamical and star formation history of the Milky Way, spanning from its halo to its central nuclear regions. The project's key objectives are 1) using the Galactic globular cluster system history to gain insights on the formation of our Galaxy; 2) understanding how the globular cluster population changed with time to uncover how this impacted the Galactic structures; 3) shedding light on the origin of nuclear star clusters and their links with globular clusters.

Arbeit, die ab Beginn des Projekts bis zum Ende des durch den Bericht erfassten Berichtszeitraums geleistet wurde, und die wichtigsten bis dahin erzielten Ergebnisse

This MSCA action led to multiple complementary projects, all focussed on the modelling of globular and nuclear star cluster formation and evolution in relation to the Galactic history. The analysis of dissipationless N-body simulations conducted during the fellowship challenged assumptions about accreted globular clusters' dynamical coherence and showed significant overlap with in-situ clusters in kinematic spaces, thus impacting the current methods used to reconstruct the Galaxy's accretion history. Another research line focused on modeling the evolution of globular clusters in the Galactic potential using direct and collisional N-body codes, parallelized on graphic processing units. This exploration aimed to investigate the formation of multiple populations in globular clusters and the contributions of these clusters to the field stellar population via escaped stars. Additionally, the project contributed to the modelling of the stellar streams resulting from the disruption of all globular clusters in the Milky Way. Additionally, a new N-body code including an implementation of the dynamical friction effect has been developed to simulate the formation and evolution of nuclear star clusters through the merger of globular clusters, enabling the tracking of their infall to the Galactic centre. Furthermore, galaxy mergers were investigated, resulting in the formation of supermassive black hole binaries, identifying indirect effects of these systems observable in galaxies that recently underwent mergers. Contributions were made to various works on the study of stellar populations at the Galactic Centre, where the researcher’s theoretical and modeling expertise was instrumental in interpreting observational data.

Fortschritte, die über den aktuellen Stand der Technik hinausgehen und voraussichtliche potenzielle Auswirkungen (einschließlich der bis dato erzielten sozioökonomischen Auswirkungen und weiter gefassten gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen des Projekts)

The research has significantly advanced the scientific knowledge on the formation and evolution of Galactic stellar populations. In addition, the project played a crucial role in education, benefiting from the researcher's expertise in outreach and teaching activities. Furthermore, the computational methodologies developed have the potential to lead to innovations in other data-intensive fields, thus contributing to technological progress.

Stellar streams and multiple populations in globular clusters.