Dynamics of gravitational systems: Globular clusters and dark matter halos

The evolution of globular clusters is investigated using a combination of the modified Fokker-Plank equation and numerical integrations of N-body systems. The orbit-averaged diffusion coefficients in the inner region of the cluster and integrated orbits of the stars in the outer region are used. The King-Michie distribution is adopted as an initial model. Both isotropic and anisotropic cases are examined. The following was found. There is no orbital phase dependence of tidal radius of clusters in eccentric orbits. The number of stars with retrograde orbits is similar to the number with prograde orbits inside the tidal radius for the isotropic case. Escape rates are similar to those found in previous work for the isotropic case but considerably smaller in the anisotropic case. Disk shocking is very efficient isotropizing the orbits of stars in the outer region of the cluster in the anisotropic case. The response of dark matter galactic halos during the dissipational collapse of the baryonic matter are investigated. N-body simulations are used with the total mass and z-component of angular momentum conserved. Then the baryonic matter is forced to contract, forming the final luminous components of the galaxy. Both slow and fast growth of the luminous components are considered. Relatively flat rotation curves are easily obtained for reasonable values of the free parameters. There is no significant difference between slow collapse and fast collapse for all these results