Matthew J. Benacquista
Montana State University-Billings
1500 N.30th
Billings, Montana 59101
email:
homepage:http://www.msubillings.edu/sciences/mattb
(Accepted on 28 January 2002)
(Published on 20 February 2002)
(Last Amended 5 December 2003)
The galactic
population of globular clusters are old, dense star systems, with a
typical cluster
containing stars. As an old
population of stars, globular clusters contain many collapsed and degenerate objects. As a
dense population of stars, globular clusters are the scene of many interesting close dynamical
interactions between stars. These dynamical interactions can alter the evolution of
individual stars and can produce tight binary systems containing one or two compact objects. In
this review, we discuss the theoretical models of globular cluster evolution and binary
evolution, techniques for simulating this evolution which
lead to relativistic binaries, and
current and possible future observational evidence for this
population. Globular cluster evolution
will focus on the properties that boost the production of hard binary systems and on the tidal
interactions of the galaxy with the cluster, which tend
to alter the structure of the globular
cluster with time. The interaction of the components of
hard binary systems alters the
evolution of both bodies and can lead to exotic objects.
Direct
-body integrations and
Fokker-Planck simulations of the evolution of globular clusters
that incorporate tidal
interactions and lead to predictions of relativistic binary
populations are also discussed.
We discuss the current observational evidence for cataclysmic
variables, millisecond pulsars,
and low-mass X-ray binaries as well as possible future detection of
relativistic binaries with
gravitational radiation.