Globular Clusters

The study of Galactic Globular Clusters plays a central role in stellar astrophysics research and it has been one of the main routes towards significant advancements in astronomy in the 20th century [Baylin (1995, ARAA, 33, 133)].

Indeed, globular star clusters are a key class of astrophysical objects since (1) they are prime laboratories for testing stellar evolution; (2) they are ``fossils'' from the epoch of galaxy formation, and thus important tools for cosmology; (3) they serve as test particles for studying the dynamics of the Galaxy; (4) their individual stars test models for stellar dynamics; (5) they are the largest aggregates in which all post Main Sequence (MS) stars can be individually observed, and thus serve as fiducial templates to study distant stellar systems.

The stellar group at the OAB has been particularly active in this field. It is possible to identify at least three main "pilot" projects which have been developed and are currently carried out at the OAB: (1) Tests of theoretical stellar models, (2) Dynamics and stellar evolution, and (3) Cosmological applications. In addition to these main programmes, a new large project is aimed at the reconstruction of the formation history of the peculiar globular $\omega$ Cen.

In order to testify the high scientific impact of the research carried out in this Sector by the OAB group, it is relevant to note that in the last four years some of our papers (Ferraro et al. 1997, A&A, 324, 915; Ferraro et al. 1998, ApJ, 500, 311; Ferraro et al. 1999, ApJ, 522, 983; Pancino et al. 2000, ApJ, 534, L83) have been quoted in the annual review ``Astrophysics in ...'', by Virginia Trimble, which summarizes the most important astrophysical discoveries of the year.