© CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1998

Preface

This book gives a comprehensive account of the current understanding of globular clusters and globular cluster systems. We describe the observed properties of these objects and discuss the theoretical ideas that are believed to account for their properties. A key theme of the book is to link the study of globular cluster systems to other areas of astrophysics, such as galaxy formation and evolution. The text is designed for graduate students working in globular cluster research, and as a resource for research astronomers active in this area. We also hope that the connections we emphasize between globular cluster systems and other astrophysical systems will make the book useful to researchers in related fields.

Many people have been instrumental in bringing this book about. The original suggestion that we embark on the project came from Simon Mitton, who accurately described the potential pitfalls and rewards of writing a book. Our editor, Adam Black, has patiently provided advice and encouragement. We are grateful to our copy-editor, Sheila Shepherd, for her careful reading of the original manuscript and her extremely helpful suggestions and corrections, and many others at Cambridge University Press who assisted in bringing this book to fruition. Our own work in the field would not have been possible without our collaborators: Christina Bird, Terry Bridges, David Carter, Alberto Conti, Jayanne English, Kenneth Freeman, Doug Geisler, David Hanes, Ray Sharples and Joseph Silk. Many other colleagues have provided considerable help in preparing the book, suggesting revisions to earlier versions and providing us with data and figures. In particular, we would like to thank Barbara Anthony-Twarog, Michael Bolte, Roberto Buonanno, Adrienne Cool, George Djorgovski, Duncan Forbes, Doug Geisler, Bill Harris, Ivan King, John Laird, Peter Leonard, Georges Meylan, Ata Sarajedini, Graeme Smith, Peter Stetson, Jeremy Tinker, Scott Trager, Scott Tremaine, Virginia Trimble, Bruce Twarog, Sidney van den Bergh, Brad Whitmore, and Robert Zinn. Sidney van den Bergh deserves special mention for carefully reading and commenting on the entire manuscript. The astronomers listed above, and many others, have also provided us with a constant supply of preprints and other information that helped us to keep abreast of the most recent developments in the field.

Much of our work in the areas described in the book has been supported by fellowships and grants from NASA through the Space Telescope Science Institute. We have also benefitted from a NATO collaborative grant and made significant progress on the maniiscript at the Aspen Center for Physics in June. 1996. The stimulating working environment at Berkeley also helped the completion of the book during collaborative visits. Most importantly, this work would not have been completed without the support and encouragement of our wives, Christina Bird and Christina Schwarz.