The effect of secular galactic growth on the evolution of star clusters

Abstract

The growth of galaxies through adiabatic accretion of dark matter is one of the main drivers of galaxy evolution. By isolating it from other processes such as mergers, we analyse how it affects the evolution of star clusters. Our study comprises a fast and approximate exploration of the orbital and intrinsic cluster parameter space, and more detailed monitoring of their evolution, through N-body simulations for a handful of cases. We find that the properties of present-day star clusters and their tidal tails differ very little,whether the clusters are embedded in a growing galactic halo for 12 Gyr, or in a static one.