Chemical evolution of star clusters.
I discuss the chemical evolution of star clusters, with emphasis on old Galactic globular clusters (GCs), in relation to their formation histories. GCs are clearly formed in a complex fashion, under markedly different conditions from any younger clusters presently known. Those special conditions must be linked to the early formation epoch of the Galaxy and must not have occurred since. While a link to the formation of GCs in dwarf galaxies has been suggested, present-day dwarf galaxies are not representative of the gravitational potential wells within which the GCs formed. Instead, a formation deep within the proto-Galaxy or within dark-matter mini-haloes might be favoured. Not all GCs may have formed and evolved similarly. In particular, we may need to distinguish Galactic Halo from Galactic Bulge clusters.
van Loon
Jacco Th
JT
Lennard-Jones Laboratories, University of Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK. jacco@astro.keele.ac.uk