Mass modelling globular clusters
As part of the Gaia Challenge series of workshops, I co-led (with Mark Gieles) the working group on 'Collisional Systems'. Some our efforts have focused on testing the validity and applicability of dynamical models (in particular distribution function based models) by comparing them to mock data from collisional N-body simulations. (e.g. Sollima et al. 2015, Zocchi et al. 2016, Peuten et al. 2017, Hénault-Brunet et al. 2018).
With collaborators, I am now applying multimass distribution function based models to real data. These physically motivated models capture the trend towards equipartition of different mass species and the resulting mass segregation in systems that are dynamically evolved due to two-body relaxation. They are very useful to infer the mass distribution within clusters, their global (initial) mass function, their content of dark stellar remnants, and also to address claims for the presence of intermediate-mass black holes in the centre of globular clusters (e.g. Gieles et al. 2018, Zocchi et al. 2017, Zocchi et al. 2018). I also led the ISSI International Team and workshops on Globular Clusters in the Gaia Era to enable collaborations between globular cluster experts and facilitate the exploitation of Gaia data for globular cluster science.
