Fokker-Planck Models of Star Clusters with Anisotropic Velocity Distributions III. Multi-mass Clusters
Open Access
- 1 October 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
- Vol. 49 (5) , 547-560
- https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/49.5.547
Abstract
The evolution of globular clusters driven by two-body relaxation was investigated by means of a numerical integration of the two-dimensional Fokker-Planck equation in energy-angular momentum space. The two-dimensional Fokker-Planck equation allows the development of velocity anisotropy. We include a spectrum of stellar masses in this paper. The radial anisotropy develops, that is, the radial velocity dispersion exceeds the tangential one, in the outer halo of multi-mass clusters as in single-mass clusters. However, the evolution of the velocity anisotropy significantly depends on the stellar mass in some cases. In fact, the tangential-velocity dispersion becomes dominant around the half-mass radius for massive components in clusters with a steep mass function. The development of this tangential anisotropy is closely related to the initial cooling of the massive components toward energy equipartition. Our simulation results suggest that multi-mass anisotropic King-Michie models are not always appropriate for describing the velocity anisotropy in globular clusters.Keywords
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