Origin and Evolution of the Globular Cluster Mass Function

Bruce G. Elmegreen
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 USA
bge@us.ibm.com

The globular cluster mass function (GCMF) is peaked at a mass that seems to be 
universally constant from galaxy to galaxy independent of type, and over radius inside a 
galaxy. The origin and mass of this peak are not understood. Cluster mass functions in 
galaxy disks are always power laws, possibly with an upper truncation. If globular 
clusters in the early universe formed by the same processes as local clusters, then the 
GCMF might have been a power law once too. Several models have been proposed to 
explain how such a power law might have evolved into a peaked function by the 
evaporation or destruction of low mass clusters. Other models consider that globular 
clusters did not form like local disk clusters but were unique from the start, like nuclear 
clusters in dwarf and late-type spiral galaxies. This talk will review observations and 
models of cluster formation and destruction with a focus on likely processes in the 
early universe.