Dynamical Evolutions in Globular Clusters and Dwarf Galaxies: Conduction Fluid Simulations

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new conduction fluid simulation scheme for modeling the long-term evolution of globular clusters and dwarf galaxies, focusing on mass segregation and core collapse phenomena.

Contribution

A novel two-fluid conduction scheme with a semi-implicit algorithm for simulating self-gravitating systems over secular timescales, adaptable to multi-species components.

Findings

Demonstrated the method's stability and applicability to globular clusters and dwarf galaxies.

Explored effects of mass segregation and gravothermal core collapse.

Provided insights into observed properties of Local Volume stellar systems.

Abstract

We present a new two-fluid conduction scheme to simulate the evolution of an isolated, self-gravitating, equilibrium cluster of stars and collisionless dark matter on secular (gravothermal) timescales. We integrate the equations in Lagrangian coordinates via a second-order, semi-implicit algorithm, which is unconditionally stable when the mass of the lighter species is much less than that of the heavier species. The method can be straightforwardly generalized to handle a multi-species system with a population of stars or components beyond collisionless dark matter and stars. We apply the method to simulate the dynamical evolution of stellar-dark matter systems, exploring the consequences of mass segregation and gravothermal core collapse, and assessing those effects for observed globular clusters and dwarf galaxies in the Local Volume.