We report on GalevNB (Galev for N-body simulations), an integrated software solution that provides N-body users direct access to the software package GALEV (GALaxy EVolutionary synthesis models). GalevNB is developed for the purpose of a direct comparison between N-body simulations and observations. It converts the fundamental stellar properties of N-body simulations, i.e., stellar mass, temperature, stellar luminosity and metallicity, into observational magnitudes for a variety of filters of widely used instruments/telescopes (HST, ESO, SDSS, 2MASS), and into spectra that span from far-UV (90 Å) to near-IR (160 μm).

Previous research on globular clusters (GCs) dynamics is mostly based on semi-analytic, Fokker-Planck, Monte-Carlo methods and on direct N-body (NB) simulations. These works have great advantages but also limits since GCs are massive and compact and close encounters and binaries play very important roles in their dynamics. The former three methods make approximations and assumptions, while expensive computing time and number of stars limit the latter method. The current largest direct NB simulation has ~ 500k stars (Heggie 2014). Here, we accelerate the direct NB code NBODY6++ (which extends NBODY6 to supercomputers by using MPI) with new parallel computing technologies (GPU, OpenMP + SSE/AVX). Our aim is to handle large N (up to 106) direct NB simulations to obtain better understanding of the dynamical evolution of GCs.

We introduce and present preliminary results from COCOA (Cluster simulatiOn Comparison with ObservAtions) code for a star cluster after 12 Gyr of evolution simulated using the MOCCA code. The COCOA code is being developed to quickly compare results of numerical simulations of star clusters with observational data. We use COCOA to obtain parameters of the projected cluster model. For comparison, a FITS file of the projected cluster was provided to observers so that they could use their observational methods and techniques to obtain cluster parameters. The results show that the similarity of cluster parameters obtained through numerical simulations and observations depends significantly on the quality of observational data and photometric accuracy.

Discovery of ultra-compact dwarfs (UCDs) in the past 15 years blurs the once thought clear division between classic globular clusters (GCs) and early-type galaxies. The intermediate nature of UCDs, which are larger and more massive than typical GCs but more compact than typical dwarf galaxies, has triggered hot debate on whether UCDs should be considered galactic in origin or merely the most extreme GCs. Previous studies of various scaling relations, stellar populations and internal dynamics did not give an unambiguous answer to the primary origin of UCDs. In this contribution, we present the first ever detailed study of global dynamics of 97 UCDs (rh ≳ 10 pc) associated with the central cD galaxy of the Virgo cluster, M87. We found that UCDs follow a different radial number density profile and different rotational properties from GCs. The orbital anisotropies of UCDs are tangentially-biased within ~ 40 kpc of M87 and become radially-biased with radius further out. In contrast, the blue GCs, which have similar median colors to our sample of UCDs, become more tangentially-biased at larger radii beyond ~ 40 kpc. Our analysis suggests that most UCDs in M87 are not consistent with being merely the most luminous and extended examples of otherwise normal GCs. The radially-biased orbital structure of UCDs at large radii is in general agreement with the scenario that most UCDs originated from the tidally threshed dwarf galaxies.

There is a growing array of supermassive black hole and nuclear star cluster scaling relations with their host spheroid, including a bent (black hole mass)–(host spheroid mass) Mbh–Msph relation and a different (massive compact object mass)–(host spheroid velocity dispersion) Mmco–σ relations for black holes and nuclear star clusters. By combining the observed Mbh ∝ σ5.5 relation with the observed Mnc ∝ σ1.6–2.7 relation, we derive the expression Mbh ∝ Mnc2–3.4, which should hold until the nuclear star clusters are eventually destroyed in the larger core-Sérsic spheroids. This new mass scaling relation helps better quantify the rapid evolutionary growth of massive black holes in dense star clusters, and the relation is consistently recovered when coupling the observed Mnc ∝ Msph0.6–1.0 relation with the recently observed quadratic relation Mbh ∝ Msph2 for Sérsic spheroids.

Because of its nearness to Earth, the centre of the Milky Way is the only galaxy nucleus in which we can study the characteristics, distribution, kinematics, and dynamics of the stars on milli-parsec scales. We have accurate and precise measurements of the Galactic centre's central black hole, Sagittarius A*, and can study its interaction with the surrounding nuclear star cluster in detail. This contribution aims at providing a concise overview of our current knowledge about the Milky Way's central black hole and nuclear star cluster, at highlighting the observational challenges and limitations, and at discussing some of the current key areas of investigation.

Nuclear stellar clusters (NSCs) are known to exist around massive black holes (MBHs) in galactic nuclei. Two formation scenarios were suggested for their origin: build-up of NSCs and Continuous in-situ star-formation. Here we study the effects of star formation on the build-up of NSCs and its implications for their long term evolution and their resulting structure. We show that continuous star-formation can lead to the build-up of an NSC with properties similar to those of the Milky-way NSC. We also find that the general structure of the old stellar population in the NSC with in-situ star-formation could be very similar to the steady-state Bahcall-Wolf cuspy structure. However, its younger stellar population does not yet achieve a steady state. In particular, formed/evolved NSCs with in-situ star-formation contain differential age-segregated stellar populations which are not yet fully mixed. Younger stellar populations formed in the outer regions of the NSC have a cuspy structure towards the NSC outskirts, while showing a core-like distribution inwards; with younger populations having larger core sizes.

Galactic white dwarf binaries will be an abundant source of gravitational waves in the mHz frequency band of space-based detectors such as eLISA. A few thousand to a few tens of thousands of these systems will be individually resolvable by eLISA, depending on the final detector configuration. The remaining tens of millions of close white dwarf binaries will create an unresolvable anisotropic foreground of gravitational waves that will be comparable to the instrument noise of eLISA at frequencies below about a mHz. Both the resolvable binaries and the foreground can be used to better understand this population. Careful choice of the initial orientation of eLISA can mitigate this foreground in searches for other sources.

The early phase of coalescence of supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) from their host galaxies provides a guaranteed source of low-frequency gravitational wave (GW) radiation by pulsar timing observations. Nowadays, SMBHBs are ubiquitous in the nuclei of galaxies. A latest sample of close galaxy pairs has been released from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data. A binary population synthesis (BPS) approach has been applied to study the characteristics of clusters and galaxies. Here we report how BPS, using SDSS results, can be used to determine the GW radiation from SMBHBs. In this study we show numerical results under the assumption that SMBHBs formed through the merger of two galaxies and give the waveform evolution using post-Newtonian approximation methods. Based on the sensitivity of the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) and Square Kilometer Array (SKA) detectors, we show that the value of strain amplitude h can be changed from about 10−14 to 10−15 during the observation of 20 years, which can be considered as a precise evolution.