Assigned ID: 867 ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Sat Feb 26 00:45:11 GMT 2011) ----- Studies of the dynamics and stellar populations of globular clusters are at the forefront of HST research. These two topics are deeply intertwined. Clusters experience an interplay of collisional processes that drive stars toward energy equipartition, thus segregating more massive stars to the core. In young clusters, this can even lead to the formation of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), which are of great astrophysical interest, although evidence for them continues to be disputed. Our recent HST(-supported) observational and theoretical studies indicate that equipartition in a cluster is not generally attained. Measurement of the actual mass segregation in clusters can yield significant insight into some of the most important cluster parameters, including the mass of any IMBH (which tends to quench mass segregation). We have demonstrated this explictly on archival data of NGC2298 and M10. HST imaging (including parallel fields) exists in fact over large radial ranges for many globular clusters. This trove of information remains largely untapped, as studies generally focus on the cluster core. We propose here to rigorously quantify and model the mass segregation in all 66 Galactic globular clusters with suitable HST data. We will create CMDs, LFs, and MFs as function of radius, and will release the resulting Legacy data products to the community to enable a host of ancillary investigations. We will run N-body models to interpret the observed mass segregation in the sample clusters. Data-model comparisons will constrain the mass of any IMBHs, will identify IMBH-candidates for more targeted follow-up, and will shed new light on cluster structure and evolution.

RESOLVED STELLAR POPULATIONS 12 Legacy false 0.0 0.0 false false false false SUPPORTED