Anisotropic Mass Segregation in Rotating Globular Clusters [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1903.11610


While observations show that globular clusters (GCs) are anisotropic, have a net rotation, and host multiple stellar populations, most theoretical models are traditionally limited to isotropic initial configurations. In this paper, we present the results of new direct N-body simulations on the dynamical evolution of rotating GCs with a multimass stellar population. In addition to the well known radial mass segregation effect, where heavy stars and stellar remnants sink toward the center of the cluster, we find a mass segregation in the distribution of orbital inclinations as well. This newly discovered anisotropic mass segregation leads to the formation of a disk-like structure of massive objects near the equatorial plane of the rotating cluster. This result has important implications on the expected spatial distribution of black holes in GCs.

Read this paper on arXiv…

&. Szölgyén, Y. Meiron and B. Kocsis
Fri, 29 Mar 19
54/78

Comments: 8 pages, 7 figures, 1 table