Dynamics of Young Star Clusters and Associations, 1st ed. 2015 Saas-Fee Advanced Course 42. Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy Saas-Fee Advanced Course Series, Vol. 42

Where do most stars (and the planetary systems that surround them) in the Milky Way form? What determines whether a young star cluster remains bound (such as an open or globular cluster), or disperses to join the field stars in the disc of the Galaxy? These questions not only impact understanding of the origins of stars and planetary systems like our own (and the potential for life to emerge that they represent), but also galaxy formation and evolution, and ultimately the story of star formation over cosmic time in the Universe.

This volume will help readers understand our current views concerning the answers to these questions as well as frame new questions that will be answered by the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite that was launched in late 2013. The book contains the elaborated notes of lectures given at the 42^nd Saas-Fee Advanced Course ?Dynamics of Young Star Clusters & Associations" by Cathie Clarke (University of Cambridge) who presents the theory of star formation and dynamical evolution of stellar systems, Robert Mathieu (University of Wisconsin) who discusses the kinematics of star clusters and associations, and I. Neill Reid (S

Cathie J Clarke is professor for astronomy at the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on star formation and exoplanets.

Robert Mathieu, has been on the faculty of the Department of Astronomy of the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1987 and department chair since 2008. His research interests are:
Structure, kinematics and dynamics of star clusters and star-forming regions; stellar binary populations; blue stragglers and other objects at the interface of stellar evolution and stellar dynamics; formation of binary stars; stellar angular momentum evolution.

Iain Neill Reid is an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. His research interests include low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, Galactic structure, extrasolar planets & astrobiology, white dwarfs. He is author of the book Reid & Hawley -  New Light on Dark Stars
(Springer - Praxis 1999, 2005).

Presents the principles of the theory of star formation and dynamical evolution of stellar systems

Discusses the kinematics of star clusters and associations and provides a general overview of the stellar populations in the disk of the Milky Way

Discusses where the Sun came from

Based on a series of lectures given by eminent scientists in the field who present the latest results

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras