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Formation of Galactic Nuclei by Globular Cluster Merging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2007

P. Miocchi
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Universitá di Roma “La Sapienza”, P.le A. Moro, 5, I-00185, Italy email: miocchi@uniroma1.it, roberto.capuzzodolcetta@uniroma1.it
R. Capuzzo Dolcetta
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Universitá di Roma “La Sapienza”, P.le A. Moro, 5, I-00185, Italy email: miocchi@uniroma1.it, roberto.capuzzodolcetta@uniroma1.it
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Abstract

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Recent HST observations have revealed that compact sources exist at the centers of many galaxies across the Hubble sequence. These sources are called “nuclear star clusters” (NCs), because their structural properties and scaling relationships are similar to those of globular clusters (GCs). It has been also found that the relationship between the masses of NCs and that of the host galaxies is similar to that obeyed by supermassive black holes (SBHs). In this observational frame, the hypothesis that galactic nuclei may be the remains of GCs driven inward to the galactic center by dynamical friction and there merged, finds an exciting possible confirm. In this short paper we report of our recent results on GC mergers obtained by mean of detailed N-body simulations.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

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