One-dimensional toy model of globular clusters - art. no. 066614

We introduce a one-dimensional toy model of globular clusters. The model is a version of the well-known gravitational sheets system, where we also tak e into account mass and energy loss by evaporation of stars at the boundari es. Numerical integration by the "exact" event-driven dynamics is performed , for initial uniform density and Gaussian random velocities. Two distinct quasistationary asymptotic regimes are attained, depending on the initial e nergy of the system. We guess the forms of the density and velocity profile s that fit numerical data extremely well and allow us to perform an indepen dent calculation of the self-consistent gravitational potential. Some power laws for the asymptotic number of stars and for the collision times are su ggested.