Evolution of star clusters with initial bulk rotation via N-body simulations

Young star clusters can inherit bulk rotation from the molecular clouds from which they have formed. This rotation can affect the long-term evolution of a star cluster and its constituent stellar populations. In this study, we aim to characterize the effects of different degrees of initial rotation on star clusters with primordial binaries. The simulations were performed using NBODY6++GPU. We find that initial rotation strongly affects the early evolution of star clusters. Rapidly rotating clusters show angular momentum transport from the inner parts to the outskirts, resulting in a core collapse. Angular momentum transport is accompanied by a highly elongated bar-like structure morphology. The effects of bulk rotation are reduced on the timescale of two-body relaxation. Rotating and nonrotating clusters experience changes in the direction of angular momentum near the dissolution and early evolution due to the tidal field, respectively. We present synthetic observations of simulated clusters for comparison with future observations in filters of Gaia, CSST, and HST. This work shows the effects of bulk rotation on systems with primordial binaries and could be used for the identification of rotation signatures in observed open clusters.

Note that the interval for snapshot files before the age of 100 Myr is 10 Myr, and is changed to 100 Myr after the age of 100 Myr until the end of simulations. Model descriptions and initial conditions could be found in the paper, Section 2, "Methodology," and Table 1. 

If you are using the data in any possible way, please cite us as Bissekenov et al. (2025): https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2505.20432