Assigned ID: 537 ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Fri Mar 07 20:48:05 GMT 2008) ----- We propose to study the dynamical evolution of young star clusters in merging galaxies. HST observations have shown that the high luminosities and the compact sizes of these young clusters are those expected for globular clusters at young ages but the evolution of young clusters in the galactic environment typical of merging galaxies has not been explored and can not be inferred from existing simulations of the evolution of clusters in isolated galaxies. In order to establish the relationship between these clusters and old globular clusters and to understand whether these objects will indeed survive and evolve to form a population of globular clusters with properties similar to those of old globulars in elliptical galaxies, we plan to study their dynamical evolution and, in particular, to explore the effects of the complex time-variation of the tidal field of the merging galaxies on their early evolution. Our study will be aimed at determining the fate and survival fraction of these young clusters, their internal properties at the end of the galaxy merger, and the global properties of the surviving cluster population. The proposed research will be based on detailed N-body simulations, using state-of-the-art hardware (several special-purpose GRAPE-6 computers will be available for this project) and software capable of modeling in detail both the internal evolution of individual clusters and the larger-scale physics of the galaxy merger.

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