Evolution of Star Cluster Within Galaxy using Self-consistent Hybrid Hydro/N-body Simulation

Yongseok Jo, Seoyoung Kim, Ji-hoon Kim, Greg L. Bryan

Published 2024-08-06Version 1

We introduce a GPU-accelerated hybrid hydro/N-body code (Enzo-N) designed to address the challenges of concurrently simulating star clusters and their parent galaxies. This task has been exceedingly challenging, primarily due to the considerable computational time required, which stems from the substantial scale difference between galaxies (~ 0.1 Mpc) and star clusters (~ pc). Yet, this significant scale separation means that particles within star clusters perceive those outside the star cluster in a semi-stationary state. By leveraging this aspect, we integrate the direct N-body code (Nbody6++GPU) into the cosmological (magneto-)hydrodynamic code (Enzo) through the utilization of the semi-stationary background acceleration approximation. We solve the dynamics of particles within star clusters using the direct N-body solver with regularization for few-body interactions, while evolving particles outside -- dark matter, gas, and stars -- using the particle-mesh gravity solver and hydrodynamic methods. We demonstrate that Enzo-N successfully simulates the co-evolution of star clusters and their parent galaxies, capturing phenomena such as core collapse of the star cluster and tidal stripping due to galactic tides. This comprehensive framework opens up new possibilities for studying the evolution of star clusters within galaxies, offering insights that were previously inaccessible.