Deep ACS Imaging in the Globular Cluster NGC6397: Dynamical Models

TL;DR

This study uses N-body simulations to analyze the dynamical evolution of the globular cluster NGC6397, comparing models with deep Hubble imaging to understand stellar populations, binary fractions, and initial mass function recovery.

Contribution

The paper presents detailed N-body models including stellar and binary evolution, matching observations of NGC6397, and provides insights into the cluster's dynamical history and optimal regions for initial mass function measurement.

Findings

White dwarf populations in outer regions are minimally affected by dynamics.

Observed binary fraction reflects the primordial binary fraction.

Optimal radial position exists for recovering the initial mass function.

Abstract

We present N-body models to complement deep imaging of the metal-poor core-collapsed cluster NGC6397 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. All simulations include stellar and binary evolution in-step with the stellar dynamics and account for the tidal field of the Galaxy. We focus on the results of a simulation that began with 100000 objects (stars and binaries), 5% primordial binaries and Population II metallicity. After 16 Gyr of evolution the model cluster has about 20% of the stars remaining and has reached core-collapse. We compare the color-magnitude diagrams of the model at this age for the central region and an outer region corresponding to the observed field of NGC6397 (about 2-3 half-light radii from the cluster centre). This demonstrates that the white dwarf population in the outer region has suffered little modification from dynamical processes - contamination of the luminosity function by binaries and white dwarfs with non-standard evolution histories is minimal and should not significantly affect measurement of the cluster age. We also show that the binary fraction of main-sequence stars observed in the NGC6397 field can be taken as representative of the primordial binary fraction of the cluster. For the mass function of the main-sequence stars we find that although this has been altered significantly by dynamics over the cluster lifetime, especially in the central and outer regions, that the position of the observed field is close to optimal for recovering the initial mass function of the cluster stars (below the current turn-off mass). More generally we look at how the mass function changes with radius in a dynamically evolved stellar cluster and suggest where the best radial position to observe the initial mass function is for clusters of any age.