Evolution of rotating star clusters at the stage of inelastic collisions

The evolution of a rotating star cluster at the stage of two-body dissipative collisions is considered. The fraction of the gas released in collisions is assumed to he small in comparison with the fraction of the dissipated kinetic energy, so the gas does not affect the contraction of the stellar component. In the Maclaurin spheroid approximation, a solution for the ellipticity epsilon identity sign 1-c/a (where a and c are the semimajour and semiminor axes) and the variation of other cluster parameters with time are obtained. Final stages in the cluster's evolution and its luminosity are analyzed. Contraction of a sufficiently dense cluster whose angular momentum is small is shown to result in a massive black hole, a supermassive ''star'', or a cluster of such ob ects. The energy produced by inelastic contact collisions can ensure the luminosity of a cluster of N approximately 109-1010 stars at a level L < or approximately 1044 erg/s during t < or approximately 107-108 years