Compact Objects in Globular Clusters

TL;DR

Globular clusters are rich environments hosting various compact objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, which drive diverse astrophysical phenomena and are key to understanding stellar evolution and gravitational wave sources.

Contribution

This review synthesizes current observational evidence and theoretical understanding of compact objects in globular clusters, highlighting their role in astrophysical phenomena and future research directions.

Findings

Globular clusters contain significant populations of compact objects.

Interactions in dense clusters lead to phenomena like X-ray sources and gravitational wave events.

Compact objects influence the dynamical evolution of their host clusters.

Abstract

It is now widely established that globular clusters host robust populations of white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes throughout their lifetimes. Within clusters, dynamical processes enabled by stellar densities thousands to millions of times larger than typical galactic environments facilitate interactions involving these stellar remnants that give rise to an array of astrophysical phenomena. In particular, stellar clusters have emerged as an important formation site for X-ray sources, radio pulsars, and merging black hole binaries similar to those recently detected as gravitational wave sources by the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA detectors. This article reviews our current understanding of compact objects in globular clusters, discussing current observational evidence, ways these objects influence the dynamical evolution of their hosts, and future prospects.