Speaker
Description
Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are the densest stellar systems in the Universe. They can be found at the center of all galaxy types, but tend to favor galaxies of intermediate stellar mass around one billion solar masses, i.e. in the regime of dwarf galaxies. Currently, two main processes are under debate to explain their formation: in-situ star-formation from gas infall and migration and merging of globular clusters (GCs) caused by dynamical friction. Studies of NSC stellar populations suggest that the former predominates in massive galaxies, the latter prevails in dwarf galaxies, and both contribute equally at intermediate mass. However, up to now, no ongoing merger of GCs has yet been observed to confirm this scenario. In my talk, I present the discovery of five dwarf galaxies with complex nuclear regions, characterized by multiple nuclei and tidal tails, using high resolution images from the Hubble Space Telescope (Poulain et al. 2025, Nature). These structures have been reproduced in complementary N-body simulations, supporting the interpretation that they result from migrating and merging of star clusters. The small detection rate and short simulated timescales (below 100 Myr) of this process may explain why this has not been observed previously. This study highlights the need of large surveys with high resolution to fully map the migration scenario steps.
