# Globular Clusters in a Cosmological N-body Simulation

## TL;DR

This study simulates the evolution of globular clusters within dark matter halos to understand their tidal mass loss and stream formation, revealing how initial conditions affect their survival and observable streams in galaxy halos.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel method of embedding stellar dynamical globular clusters into cosmological dark matter simulations to study their long-term evolution and stream formation.

## Key findings

- High-redshift initial conditions lead to more dissolved clusters.
- Most streams lack associated clusters, implying more clusters existed in the past.
- Streams can form from clusters accreted at different cosmic times.

## Abstract

Stellar dynamical model globular clusters are introduced into reconstituted versions of the dark matter halos of the Via-Lactea II (VL-2) simulation to follow the star cluster tidal mass loss and stellar stream formation. The clusters initially evolve within their local sub-galactic halo, later being accreted into the main halo. Stars are continually removed from the clusters, but those that emerged in the sub-galactic halos are dispersed in a wide stream when accreted into the main halo. Thin tidal streams that survive to the present can begin to form once a cluster is in the main halo. A higher redshift start places the star clusters in denser halos where they are subject to stronger tides leading to higher average mass loss rates. A z=3 start leads to a rich set of star streams with nearly all within 100 kpc having a remnant progenitor star cluster in the stream. In contrast, in a z=8 start, all star clusters that are accreted onto the main halo are completely dissolved. These results are compared to the available data on Milky-Way streams, where the majority of streams do not have clearly associated globular clusters. which, if generally true, suggests that there were at least twice as many massive globular clusters at high redshift.