The interplay between stellar evolution and stellar dynamics in stellar clusters

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The ultimate goal of this research program is to describe, in detail, the evolution of stellar clusters and their constituent stellar populations from birth to death. Globular and open clusters have historically been very enlightening environments in which to study the evolution of isolated stars, and to study the behaviour of self-gravitating systems. However, it is now clear that these two approaches cannot independently describe both the overall dynamical evolution of the cluster, nor the properties of all the constituent stellar populations. Close encounters and collisions between individual clusters stars have a significant impact on the appearance and evolution of the cluster. And evidence is emerging that clusters may not be the simple stellar populations we had thought, with primordial binaries and very early star formation playing an important role. My contributions centre on bringing multiple theoretical tools and techniques together to address the outstanding puzzles in cluster populations and evolution. My group and I are currently concentrating on three specific projects. We are providing theoretical models of dynamically-produced stellar populations in collaboration with observers of a variety of environments, including open clusters, globular clusters, and dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We are using hydrodynamical and stellar evolution modelling techniques to study specific stellar collision products. And we are looking at the possibility that an early generation of stars in globular clusters could have been dynamically modified to produce the observed variations in stellar compositions.