A direct N-body model of core-collapse and core oscillations

作者：Hurley Jarrod R^*; Shara Michael M

来源：Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2012, 425(4): 2872-2879.

DOI：10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21668.x

• methods: numerical
• binaries: close
• stars: evolution
• stars: kinematics and dynamics
• globular clusters: general
• galaxies: star clusters: general

We report on the results of a direct N-body simulation of a star cluster that started with N = 200 000, comprising 195 000 single stars and 5000 primordial binaries. The code used for the simulation includes stellar evolution, binary evolution, an external tidal field and the effects of two-body relaxation. The model cluster is evolved to 12 Gyr, losing more than 80 per cent of its stars in the process. It reaches the end of the main core-collapse phase at 10.5 Gyr and experiences core oscillations from that point onwards - direct numerical confirmation of this phenomenon. However, we find that after a further 1 Gyr the core oscillations are halted by the ejection of a massive binary comprised of two black holes from the core, producing a core that shows no signature of the prior core-collapse. We also show that the results of previous studies with N ranging from 500 to 100 000 scale well to this new model with larger N. In particular, the time-scale to core collapse (in units of the relaxation time-scale), mass segregation, velocity dispersion and the energies of the binary population all show similar behaviour at different N.

• 出版日期2012-10