Numerical Simulations of Globular Cluster Formation

We examine various physical processes associated with the formation ofglobular clusters by using the three-dimensional Smoothed ParticleHydrodynamics (SPH) code. Our code includes radiative cooling of gases, starformation, energy feedback from stars including stellar winds and supernovae,and chemical enrichment by stars. We assume that, in the collapsing galaxy,isothermal cold clouds form through thermal condensations and becomeproto-globular clouds. We calculate the size of proto-globular clouds bysolving the linearized equations for perturbation. We compute the evolution ofthe inner region of the proto-cloud with our SPH code for various initialradius and initial composition of gases. When the initial gases contain noheavy elements, the evolution of proto-clouds sensitively depends on theinitial radius. For a smaller initial radius, the initial star burst is sointense that the subsequent star formation occurs in the central regions toform a dense star cluster as massive as the globular cluster. When the initialgases contain some heavy elements, the metallicity of gases affects theevolution and the final stellar mass. If the initial radius of theproto-globular clouds was relatively large, the formation of a star cluster asmassive as the globular clusters requires the initial metallicity as high as[Fe/H] $\geq -2$. The self-enrichment of heavy elements in the star clusterdoes not occur in all cases.Comment: Accpeted for publication in the ApJ. Correctiong errors in Table