# The devil is in the tails: the role of globular cluster mass evolution on stream properties

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how the evolution of globular cluster mass affects the formation and visibility of tidal streams, revealing that mass loss biases can explain the absence of streams near some clusters.

## Contribution

It introduces a semi-analytical model coupling stellar mass function evolution with stream simulations to study the impact of cluster mass evolution on stream detectability.

## Key findings

- Massive clusters near dissolution produce streams with higher average star mass.
- Clusters three times more massive than current Palomar 5 would have undetectable streams.
- Preferential escape of low-mass stars explains the absence of tails near some clusters.

## Abstract

We present a study of the effects of collisional dynamics on the formation and detectability of cold tidal streams. A semi-analytical model for the evolution of the stellar mass function was implemented and coupled to a fast stellar stream simulation code, as well as the synthetic cluster evolution code EMACSS for the mass evolution as a function of a globular cluster orbit. We find that the increase in the average mass of the escaping stars for clusters close to dissolution has a major effect on the observable stream surface density. As an example, we show that Palomar 5 would have undetectable streams (in an SDSS-like survey) if it was currently three times more massive, despite the fact that a more massive cluster loses stars at a higher rate. This bias due to the preferential escape of low-mass stars is an alternative explanation for the absence of tails near massive clusters, than a dark matter halo associated with the cluster. We explore the orbits of a large sample of Milky Way globular clusters and derive their initial masses and remaining mass fraction. Using properties of known tidal tails we explore regions of parameter space that favour the detectability of a stream. A list of high probability candidates is discussed