2017 Winner: EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF A GLOBULAR CLUSTER

Project Information
EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF A GLOBULAR CLUSTER
Physical and Biological Sciences
Physics Senior Thesis
For decades, the holy grail N-body calculations has been to perform a simulation of a globular star cluster, modeling the stars on a one-to-one basis. This implies solving the million-body problem while taking into consideration the drastically broad range in length and time. Given that globular clusters have dimensions of parsecs and are about ten billion years in age, the range in length scales spans more than 15 orders of magnitude while the range in timescales spans more than 20 orders of magnitude. Despite the severe constraints on both hardware and software required in such simulations, we are now in a position to carry out such calculations. A central component of my thesis is the development of ways to navigate freely and interactively throughout the full 4-dimensional history of the space-time evolution of a realistic million-star system in order to effectively disentangle the rich set of physical phenomena present in the system.
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Students
  • Krystal M Ruiz-Rocha (Stevenson)
Mentors