Abstract
Presence of stars with disparate masses causes great differences in the dynamical evolution of star clusters from the evolution of single component clusters. One remarkable effect is acceleration of the evolution. Another effect is destabilization or stabilization. In two-component clusters equipartition at the cluster centre is nearly achieved if Spitzer's (1969) condition is satisfied. In multi-component clusters equipartition at the cluster centre is achieved if either the range of stellar mass is very narrow or the mass spectrum is very steep. Global equipartition is never achieved. Post-collapse evolution of multi-component clusters is discussed briefly and some remained problems are presented.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)