Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg


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2026-06-10
14:00
Evolution of Globular Cluster Systems from High Redshift to the Present
Oleg Gnedin (University of Michigan)
ARI Special Colloquium
ARI, Library lounge
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Abstract
Globular clusters are massive star clusters that formed in high-redshift galaxies and remained gravitationally bound until the present. They serve as tracers of most active episodes of galactic star formation and allow us to reconstruct the assembly history of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. I will describe a long-term program to model the formation and disruption of globular clusters throughout cosmic time, using a combination of cosmological simulations with adaptive mesh refinement and accurate semi-analytic modeling. These simulations predicted that massive star clusters should be the dominant stellar populations of high-redshift galaxies, as has now been confirmed by JWST observations of strongly lensed galaxies. The feedback of massive clusters regulates the star formation history of their host galaxies and their observability, and the shape of the cluster mass function serves as an indicator of burstiness of the galactic star formation. The semi-analytical model allows us to follow the long-term evolution of these clusters and provides evidence that the massive clusters observed at high redshift are true progenitors of old globular clusters in the local universe. We have also developed efficient algorithms for detecting stellar streams created by disrupting globular clusters, which revealed tens of previously undiscovered streams in the Gaia data. Mock catalogs of the predicted populations of survived Galactic globular clusters and stellar streams from disrupted clusters are available for all interested researchers.

2026-05-20
14:00
Mixing Layers: Resolution Requirements and the Origin of Fast-Cooling Behaviour
Lachlan Lancaster (CCA)
ARI Special Colloquium
Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Mönchhofstraße 12-14 [room in talk description], ARI library lounge
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Abstract
I will present results from a large suite of high-resolution Athena-K hydrodynamical simulations of Turbulent Radiative Mixing Layers (TRMLs). Using these I will argue that in order to faithfully represent the phase space distribution in these layers, which is very important for inferring their observable properties, one must resolve the scales on which turbulent diffusion competes on equal footing with the chemical processes occurring in the layer. I will then show that the origin of suppressed cooling in these simulations when the cooling time becomes very short in comparison to the mixing time on large scales (the so-called ``fast cooling'' regime) is due to the suppression of turbulent folding in the layer due the the ram-pressure of gas flowing in to the layer to balance cooling.

2026-04-22
14:00
Cosmological galaxy formation – multi-phase gas, feedback, and how to solve the multi-scale problem
Rainer Weinberger (AIP)
ARI Special Colloquium
Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Mönchhofstraße 12-14 [room in talk description], ARI library lounge
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Abstract
Over the last twenty years, simulations of galaxy formation from cosmological initial conditions have become an invaluable resource for advancing modern galaxy formation research. These simulations have not only successfully reproduced stellar masses and the diverse morphological types of galaxies observed at redshift 0 but have also captured a wide array of other properties. While these models serve as a crucial link between cosmology and the observed galaxy population, they still face significant limitations – particularly at small scales. The modeling of feedback effects from stars and active galactic nuclei (AGN) remains highly oversimplified, largely dictated by resolution constraints. As a result, the simulated gas flows often differ substantially from those produced in coarse-grained, high-resolution models. In this presentation, I will highlight recent progress made to address these challenges. First, I will examine the impact of AGN feedback in the most massive halos and demonstrate how simulations are instrumental in interpreting the latest XRISM observations of cool-core galaxy clusters. Next, I will explore AGN feedback in lower-mass systems, emphasizing the role of multi-phase gas with insights gained from recent JWST observations of galactic outflows, and discuss our modeling approach. Finally, I will introduce a multi-fluid formulation for multi-phase gas and illustrate how this method can help overcome the limitations of current simulations, ultimately reconciling small-scale and large-scale models.

2026-04-01
14:00
Intermediate mass black holes and gravitational waves from dense hierarchically assembling high redshift star clusters
Antti Rantala (KICC)
ARI Special Colloquium
Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Mönchhofstraße 12-14 [room in talk description], ARI seminar room on the first floor
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Abstract
We explore the formation of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs), potential seeds for supermassive black holes (SMBHs), via runaway stellar collisions for a wide range of star cluster densities and metallicities. Our sample of isolated (>1400) and hierarchical (30) simulations of massive JWST z~10 analogue star clusters with up to 1.8 million stars includes collisional stellar dynamics, stellar evolution, and post-Newtonian equations of motion for black holes using the BIFROST code. High stellar wind rates suppress IMBH formation at high metallicities (above 0.2 of the solar value) and low collision rates prevent their formation at low densities. The assumptions about stellar wind loss rates strongly affect the final IMBH masses (6000 vs 25000 solar masses). We present fitting formulae for IMBH masses as a function of host star cluster properties, and formulate a simple model for the cosmic IMBH formation rate density. We highlight the current model uncertainties and emphasize the need for collaboration between the galaxy formation and stellar communities for future progress in IMBH science. Finally, we find that the characteristic gravitational wave (GW) fingerprint of hierarchical star cluster assembly is a close-to-equal mass GW merger in the IMBH mass range.

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