Stellar Clusters: Benchmarks for Stellar Physics and Galactic Evolution

Stellar clusters are fundamental units of their host galaxy with very diverse properties. They can be either young or old, short or long-lived, rich and dense or sparse and small. Studying their formation, dynamics and chemical composition is crucial to understand the origin and evolution of galaxies. Moreover, since cluster stars are born roughly at the same time from their parental molecular cloud, they can be used as benchmarks to constrain stellar evolution models.

Research on stellar clusters is exceptionally active and evolves quickly, thanks to recent observational results obtained in particular with the VLT, HST and Herschel, but also to theoretical developments and cutting-edge numerical simulations.

This volume offers lectures given by world experts in the field during the Evry Schatzman School on Stellar Physics (EES 2015) held in Banyuls sur Mer, France. The addressed topics include the formation of clusters in the local universe and at large redshift, their dynamical and chemical evolution, their contribution to galactic structure and evolution in a global cosmological context, as well as the interactions between stars and their environment. These multifaceted reviews are intended to impulse new numerical simulations and to facilitate the exploitation of new observational data (from e.g., the Gaia and JWST space-missions as well as from ALMA, SKA and later the E-ELT). Therefore this book will be a valuable reference for researchers and students in the coming years.