Stellar systems dynamics

Abstract. We present preliminary results of an extensive low and high-resolution ESO-VLT spectroscopic survey of Subgiant stars in the stellar system uj Centauri. Basing on infrared Ca II triplet lines we derived metallicities and radial velocities for more than 110 stars belonging to different stellar populations of the system. The most metal rich component, the SGB-a, appears to have metallicity [Fe/H] -0.5. Moreover, SGB-a stars have been found to stray from the dynamical behaviour of the bulk population. Such evidence adds new puzzling questions on the formation and the chemical enrichment history of this stellar system. 

Lynden-Bell, D. 1973, in G. Contopulos, M. Henon D. Lynden-Bell, Dynamical Structure and Evolution of Stellar Systems, Geneva Geneva Observatory, p. 132. Lynden-Bell, D. 1975, Vistas in Astr., 19, 299. 

The Newtonian gravitational force is the dominant force in the N-Body systems in the universe, as for example in a planetary system, a planet with its satellites, or a multiple stellar system. The long term evolution of the system depends on the topology of its phase space and on the existence of ordered or chaotic regions. The topology of the phase space is determined by the position and the stability character of the periodic orbits of the system (the fixed points of the Poincare map on a surface of section). Islands of stable motion exist around the stable periodic orbits, chaotic motion appears at unstable periodic orbits. This makes clear the importance of the periodic orbits in the study of the dynamics of such systems. 

Thus the mass of stars and that of the whole system steadily increase while z soon approaches 1 and the stellar metallicity distribution is very narrow (see Fig. 8.24). The accretion rate is constant in time if the star formation rate is any fixed function of the mass of gas. Other models in which the accretion rate is constant, but less than in the extreme model, have been quite often considered in the older literature (e.g. Twarog 1980), but are less popular now because they are not well motivated from a dynamical point of view, there is an upper limit to the present inflow rate into the whole Galaxy of about 1 M0yr 1 from X-ray data (Cox Smith 1976) and they do not provide a very good fit to the observed metallicity distribution function. 

The influence of the appearance of such exotic states like quarks in stellar matter is topic of the study of quasi-stationary simulations of the evolution of isolated compact stars [15, 12, 7, 23] and accreting systems, where one companion is a superdense compact object [9,27], In this work we investigate the observability of the hadron-quark deconfinement phase transition in the dynamical evolution of a neutron star merger. 

Figure 1.3 Chronology of the planet formation in the Solar System and astronomical analogs. The isotopes given identify the radioisotope systems that served as a basis for the dating. For the astronomical ages, Li refers to ages derived from stellar atmospheric Li abundances, dyn refers to dynamically derived ages, iso refers to ages derived through stellar isochrone fitting. Note that the zero points of the two systems were assumed here to coincide.

Stars form in dense cores within giant molecular clouds (see Fig. 1.4, Alves et al. 2001). About 1 % of their mass is in dust grains, produced in the final phases of stellar evolution. Molecular clouds are complex entities with extreme density variations, whose nature and scales are defined by turbulence. These transient environments provide dynamic reservoirs that thoroughly mix dust grains of diverse origins and composition before the violent star-formation process passes them on to young stars and planets. Remnants of this primitive dust from the Solar System formation exist as presolar grains in primitive chondritic meteorites and IDPs. 

The first test of Newtonian mechanics outside the solar system was the discovery of dynamically bound multiple star systems, first by Herschel and later by Bessel and his school in the nineteenth century. The observation and determination of orbits for visual binaries have been especially important for understanding the masses of many star systems. In addition, after the discovery of spectroscopic binaries, the measurement of stellar masses became routine through the observation of eclipsing binary stars. 

Stellar dynamics and may have analogs in the formation of orbits in planetary ring systems and the asteroid belt. 

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