Open star clusters and their dynamics

Open star clusters represent a diverse group of stellar aggregates of differing properties. Their observational census of in our Galaxy reaches the order of thousands and the theoretically expected total number is even larger.

The general goal of this project is to investigate the stellar-dynamical evolution of open star clusters and their distribution and motions across the Galaxy. The research will be conducted theoretically, mostly exploiting the methods of direct N-body modelling, however, with a strong emphasis on the observational constraints.

The PhD student will naturally collaborate with the other members of the well established star cluster group at the Astronomical Institute of Charles University: Ladislav Subr, Jaroslav Haas, Henriette Wirth.

References:

[1] Kroupa et al. (2024) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024ApJ...970...94K/abstract
[2] Kroupa et al. (2022) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022MNRAS.517.3613K/abstract
[3] Kroupa & Bouvier (2003) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003MNRAS.346..343K/abstract
[4] Kroupa, Aarseth & Hurley (2001) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001MNRAS.321..699K/abstract
[5] Kroupa (1995) https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995MNRAS.277.1522K/abstract