Dynamical evolutions in globular clusters and dwarf galaxies: Conduction fluid simulations

Yi-Ming Zhong; Stuart L. Shapiro

doi:10.1103/z1fy-2p8s

Dynamical evolutions in globular clusters and dwarf galaxies: Conduction fluid simulations

Yi-Ming Zhong^*
, Stuart L. Shapiro^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Physics

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

34 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

We present a new two-fluid conduction scheme to simulate the evolution of an isolated, self-gravitating, equilibrium cluster of stars and collisionless dark matter on secular (gravothermal) timescales. We integrate the equations in Lagrangian coordinates via a second-order, semi-implicit algorithm, which is unconditionally stable when the mass of the lighter species is much less than that of the heavier species. The method can be straightforwardly generalized to handle a multispecies system with a population of stars or components beyond collisionless dark matter and stars. We apply the method to simulate the dynamical evolution of stellar-dark matter systems, exploring the consequences of mass segregation and gravothermal core collapse, and assessing those effects for observed globular clusters and dwarf galaxies in the Local Volume. © 2025 American Physical Society.

Original language	English
Article number	023040
Journal	Physical Review D
Volume	112
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/z1fy-2p8s
Publication status	Published - Jul 2025

Funding

We thank Anirudh Chiti, Liang Dai, Ariane Dekker, Alex Drlica-Wagner, Moritz Fischer, Alexander Ji, Andrey Kravtsov, Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil, Ethan Nadler, Kaixiang Wang, and Hai-Bo Yu for useful discussions. The simulations were partly performed at the University of Chicago’s Research Computing Center. Y. Z. acknowledges the Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by NSF Grant No. PHY-1607611, and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, which is supported by NSF Grant No. NSF PHY-2309135, for their hospitality during the completion of this study. Y. Z. is supported by the GRF Grants No. 11302824 and No. 11310925 from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR and the Grant No. 9610645 from the City University of Hong Kong. S. L. S. acknowledges support from NSF Grants No. PHY 2006066 and No. PHY 2308242 to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Publisher's Copyright Statement

COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED FINAL PUBLISHED VERSION FILE: Zhong, Y.-M., & Shapiro, S. L. (2025). Dynamical evolutions in globular clusters and dwarf galaxies: Conduction fluid simulations. Physical Review D, 112(2), Article 023040. https://doi.org/10.1103/z1fy-2p8s. The copyright of this article is owned by American Physical Society.

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GRF: Understanding the Galactic Center Gamma-ray Excess
ZHONG, Y. (Principal Investigator / Project Coordinator)
1/01/26 → …
Project: Research
GRF: Probing Dark Matter Self-Interactions with Evolving Properties of Dark Matter Halos
ZHONG, Y. (Principal Investigator / Project Coordinator)
1/09/24 → …
Project: Research

Cite this

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title = "Dynamical evolutions in globular clusters and dwarf galaxies: Conduction fluid simulations",

abstract = "We present a new two-fluid conduction scheme to simulate the evolution of an isolated, self-gravitating, equilibrium cluster of stars and collisionless dark matter on secular (gravothermal) timescales. We integrate the equations in Lagrangian coordinates via a second-order, semi-implicit algorithm, which is unconditionally stable when the mass of the lighter species is much less than that of the heavier species. The method can be straightforwardly generalized to handle a multispecies system with a population of stars or components beyond collisionless dark matter and stars. We apply the method to simulate the dynamical evolution of stellar-dark matter systems, exploring the consequences of mass segregation and gravothermal core collapse, and assessing those effects for observed globular clusters and dwarf galaxies in the Local Volume. {\textcopyright} 2025 American Physical Society.",

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N2 - We present a new two-fluid conduction scheme to simulate the evolution of an isolated, self-gravitating, equilibrium cluster of stars and collisionless dark matter on secular (gravothermal) timescales. We integrate the equations in Lagrangian coordinates via a second-order, semi-implicit algorithm, which is unconditionally stable when the mass of the lighter species is much less than that of the heavier species. The method can be straightforwardly generalized to handle a multispecies system with a population of stars or components beyond collisionless dark matter and stars. We apply the method to simulate the dynamical evolution of stellar-dark matter systems, exploring the consequences of mass segregation and gravothermal core collapse, and assessing those effects for observed globular clusters and dwarf galaxies in the Local Volume. © 2025 American Physical Society.

AB - We present a new two-fluid conduction scheme to simulate the evolution of an isolated, self-gravitating, equilibrium cluster of stars and collisionless dark matter on secular (gravothermal) timescales. We integrate the equations in Lagrangian coordinates via a second-order, semi-implicit algorithm, which is unconditionally stable when the mass of the lighter species is much less than that of the heavier species. The method can be straightforwardly generalized to handle a multispecies system with a population of stars or components beyond collisionless dark matter and stars. We apply the method to simulate the dynamical evolution of stellar-dark matter systems, exploring the consequences of mass segregation and gravothermal core collapse, and assessing those effects for observed globular clusters and dwarf galaxies in the Local Volume. © 2025 American Physical Society.

U2 - 10.1103/z1fy-2p8s

DO - 10.1103/z1fy-2p8s

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 2470-0010

VL - 112

JO - Physical Review D

JF - Physical Review D

IS - 2

M1 - 023040

ER -

Dynamical evolutions in globular clusters and dwarf galaxies: Conduction fluid simulations

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Projects

GRF: Understanding the Galactic Center Gamma-ray Excess

GRF: Probing Dark Matter Self-Interactions with Evolving Properties of Dark Matter Halos

Cite this