A Land of Confusion: Spectroscopy in the Heart of Globular Clusters
The study of the centres of Galactic globular clusters has always been limited by the relatively low number of stars accessible to detailed measurements. Yet we might just be witnessing the disappearance of this limitation. For example, the combination of precise proper motion measurements and integral-field spectroscopy promises to provide a three-dimensional view of the central dynamics. These data will give us important insights into some of the open questions in globular cluster research. Do intermediate-mass black holes exist in their centres? Do different populations have different kinematics? How do binary stars influence the cluster evolution? In my talk, I want to introduce our campaign to learn more about the stellar populations in globular clusters and their dynamics using the MUSE integral field spectrograph. A dedicated analysis technique allows us to obtain samples of several thousands of stars per cluster and study the central kinematics in great detail. Our survey currently includes 25 clusters and I will present the results we obtained on their central dispersion and rotation fields. In addition, for many of the clusters multi-epoch data are already available, opening up the possibility to study binary stars.
