DTPA Seminar: Katja Fahrion

The Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics invites you to the department seminary:

Katja Fahrion:  Across Scales: Tracing Galaxy Formation and Distances with Star Clusters

Massive star clusters such as globular clusters and nuclear star clusters contain millions of stars tightly packed together. As bright sources visible even in distant galaxies, they are powerful tracers of galaxy haloes and the processes that shape galaxy assembly. In this talk I will show how these clusters can be used to probe galaxies across multiple scales: from the formation of galactic nuclei, to the structure and dynamics of their halos, and to the larger cosmic structures. I will describe how nuclear star clusters form in different galaxies, highlight how globular clusters provide insights into the build-up of galaxy haloes, and show how high-resolution spectroscopy of star clusters can be used to measure extragalactic distances.