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# Star Formation History of 𝜔 Centauri Imprinted in Elemental Abundance Patterns

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The potential history and characteristics of the globular cluster (GC) $`\omega `$ Centauri remains largely unresolved, although its most conspicuous features can be seen in the elemental abundance properties. Most prominently, there exists a large dispersion in metallicity (–2$`\stackrel{<}{}`$\[Fe/H\]$`\stackrel{<}{}`$–0.5) among its member stars (e.g., Norris & Da Costa, 1995; Suntzeff & Kraft, 1996) in contrast to other Galactic GCs which exhibit essentially no dispersion. In addition, this GC contains stars that display a significant enhancement of $`s`$-process elements relative to iron (Fe) and $`r`$-process elements (Norris & Da Costa, 1995).

The spread in metallicity (or \[Fe/H\]) is likely to be evidence of self-enrichment (e.g., Suntzeff & Kraft, 1996), and has been generally attributed to the fact that $`\omega `$ Cen is the most massive and brightest GC in the Galaxy (e.g., Ikuta & Arimoto, 2000). However, Gnedin et al. (2002) showed that $`\omega `$ Cen does not have an exceptionally deep gravitational potential compared to other Galactic GCs. The uniqueness of $`\omega `$ Cen has led some authors to consider that it is the surviving nucleus of a dwarf galaxy that has been tidally stripped by the Milky Way (e.g., Freeman, 1993; Majewski et al., 2000; Hilker & Richter, 2000). It should be noted that there are no observed metal-poor (\[Fe/H\]$`\stackrel{<}{}`$–2) stars in $`\omega `$ Cen, which indicates that $`\omega `$ Cen formed from a pre-enriched gas. This feature is indeed shared with the other GCs. The formation of $`\omega `$ Cen should therefore be considered in any general scheme of GC formation.

Regarding the latter feature, a study by Smith et al. (2000) identified two distinct populations in terms of correlation between \[Ba/Eu\] and \[Fe/H\] for 10 $`\omega `$ Cen stars (filled circles in Fig. 1). One population has metallicity in the range of \[Fe/H\]$`<1.8`$ and low \[Ba/Eu\] ratios, corresponding closely to the pure $`r`$-process origin ratio, and the other population has \[Fe/H\]$`>1.6`$ with high \[Ba/Eu\] ratios, ascribed to a large $`s`$-process nucleosynthesis contribution. Another unique feature of the elemental abundance can be observed in the abundance distribution function (ADF) of $`\omega `$ Cen stars (Norris, Freeman, & Mighell, 1996; Suntzeff & Kraft, 1996; van Leeuwen et al., 2000). The ADF has a conspicuous peak at \[Fe/H\]$`1.4`$ with a long, metal-rich tail starting from \[Fe/H\]$`1`$ extending to \[Fe/H\]$`0.5`$. It is expected that both the unusual ADF and the peculiar behavior of $`n`$-capture elements could be useful in inferring the potentially unique history of $`\omega `$ Cen.

Recent observations have revealed that stars belonging to the metal-rich tail exhibit signs of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) enrichment (Pancino et al., 2002). Figure 1 shows that the \[Ca/Fe\] ratios (open circles) decrease with increasing \[Fe/H\]. This gives an overall sequence of chemical enrichment processes in $`\omega `$ Cen, from initiation by Type II SNe ($`r`$-process), to an $`s`$-process, and finally SNe Ia. The imprint of such a sequential enrichment history on these stars strongly supports a self-enrichment scenario above among several other possible explanations for the abundance anomalies of $`\omega `$ Cen stars proposed so far (see Kraft, 1979; Smith, 1987).

Tsujimoto & Shigeyama (2002, TS02 in the following) have shown that the stellar abundance pattern of $`n`$-capture elements could be used as a powerful tool to infer how star formation proceeded in the Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies. In the same manner, the unique elemental pattern seen in $`\omega `$ Cen stars must record the history of $`\omega `$ Cen. Combining all the above elemental abundance information, it is possible to build a new picture for the history of $`\omega `$ Cen. The scenario presented here is constructed in the context of an inhomogeneous chemical evolution model in which stars are born from the matter swept up by individual supernova remnants (SNRs) (Shigeyama & Tsujimoto, 1998). In this model, each star inherits heavy elements not only through the interstellar medium but also directly from a massive star of the preceding generation. This model successfully reproduces the chemical evolution of Galactic halo field stars (Tsujimoto, Shigeyama, & Yoshii, 1999) as well as that of the Milky Way dwarf spheroidal stars (TS02), and is extended here to Galactic GCs including $`\omega `$ Cen.

In the next section, the history of $`\omega `$ Cen is described based on an analysis of the elemental abundance pattern of $`\omega `$ Cen stars. The chemical evolution of $`\omega `$ Cen is modeled in section 3, and a scheme for GC formation in the framework of the inhomogeneous chemical evolution of the Galactic halo is proposed in section 4. The paper is concluded in section 5.

## 2 History of $`\omega `$ Centauri

The star formation history of $`\omega `$ Cen is inferred from the stellar elemental abundance pattern shown in Figure 1. First of all, a sudden increase in the \[Ba/Eu\] ratios at \[Fe/H\]$`1.6`$ implies that $`\omega `$ Cen has undergone two discrete episodes of star formation. The observed \[Ba/Eu\] ratios of as large as +1 are attributed to a contribution from asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars after gas removal at the end of the first episode of star formation. If gas was not expelled after the first episode, the $`s`$-process nucleosynthesis in AGB stars would increase the \[Ba/Eu\] ratio to only $`+0.2`$ at most according to the Salpeter initial mass function (IMF). A steepened IMF may enhance the \[Ba/Eu\] ratios. However, the observed \[$`\alpha `$-elements/Fe\] ratios for \[Fe/H\] $`\stackrel{<}{}`$–1 in $`\omega `$ Cen stars close to those for the solar neighborhood stars (Norris & Da Costa, 1995; Smith et al., 2000) require one similar to the Salpeter IMF.

The star formation history inferred from the observed \[Ba/Eu\] ratios is then as follows. 1. After completion of the first phase of star formation, a large part of the remaining gas was expelled by SN II explosions. 2. The gas was then contaminated by $`s`$-process elements ejected from AGB stars during a quiescent stage lasting several hundred Myr. This led to the enhancement of Ba relative to Eu in the gas. 3. Star formation then recommenced after the gas, once heated by SNe, cooled sufficiently and collapsed, with associated shock wave formation. Stars formed from this shocked gas and stars subsequently formed have very high Ba/Eu ratios. The second star formation phase continued until the metallicity \[Fe/H\] reached $`1`$.

In this way, the second episode of star formation in $`\omega `$ Cen should have proceeded without expelling all the interstellar gas. The fate of the interstellar gas, i.e., whether it was expelled or trapped, is determined by competition between the energy of SN explosions and the gravitational binding energy of the gas. To reproduce the observed features in $`\omega `$ Cen, the energy of SN explosions should not appreciably exceed the gravitational binding energy. A chemical evolution model that satisfies this condition is shown in the next section. In the Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies, the absence of $`s`$-process signatures suggests that the energy of SN explosions will have overcome the gravitational potential energy in those cases, which prevents recommencement of star formation (TS02).

This then poses the question of how star formation proceeded after the second star formation epoch. A clue lies in the extended metal-rich tail in the observed ADF (Fig. 2a). Pancino et al. (2002) recently found that stars belonging to the metal-rich tail exhibit decreasing \[Ca/Fe\] ratios with increasing \[Fe/H\], ascribed as a sign of SNe Ia enrichment (open circles in Fig. 1). From the theoretical aspect, such SNe Ia enrichment is indispensable to increasing the metallicity \[Fe/H\] of stars to $`0.5`$ as observed. In fact, this metal rich end of \[Fe/H\] cannot be reached by the Fe supply from only SNe II given the small number of stars with \[Fe/H\] $`>1`$ (see Fig. 2a). In the SN-induced star formation scenario, SNe Ia do not only enrich gas with Fe but also initiate star formation in the third episode.

In the end, $`\omega `$ Cen has three episodes of star formation, each of which is likely to be identified with each subpopulation found by Pancino et al. (2000). In addition, Ferraro, Bellazzini, & Pancino (2002) found that three distinct populations have different proper-motion distributions: the other two populations have bulk motions with respect to the dominant metal-poor population (i.e., stars produced in the first episode). During the star formation phase over a few Gyrs, the proto-cluster cloud for $`\omega `$ Cen passed repeatedly through the forming Galactic disk. At that time, the gas in the cloud was accelerated by the ram pressure, leading to a bulk motion of the gas from which stars were formed. In this framework, it is expected that the bulk motion of third metal-rich population is larger than that of the second population. The increasing density of the disk exerted a greater ram pressure to the proto-cluster cloud at a later passage leading to a larger bulk motion. It is indeed consistent with the observed finding. The ram pressure associated with the passages of the disk was not strong enough to strip the gas off, that is, the ram pressue could not overcome the gravitational attraction of the cloud, as discussed in §4.3. Thus there might be no need to invoke an accretion of metal-rich stellar system onto $`\omega `$ Cen as suggested by Ferraro et al. (2002).

## 3 Modelling of Chemical Evolution in $`\omega `$ Cen

The chemical evolution of $`\omega `$ Cen is treated using an inhomogeneous chemical evolution model (Tsujimoto et al., 1999) that accounts for the star formation history described in the previous section. The model is based on a scenario in which the chemical evolution proceeds through a repetition of a sequence of SN explosion, shell formation, and star formation from the matter swept up by individual SNRs. Heavy elements ejected from an SN are assumed to be trapped and well-mixed within the SNR shell. A fraction of this heavy element material will be incorporated into stars of the next generation, while the material remaining in the gas will mix with the ambient medium. The above process will repeat, increasing metallicity until SNRs can no longer sweep up enough gas to form shells. No stars will form from SNRs after this happens, and the process will terminate. Details of this process are given in Tsujimoto et al. (1999). It should be noted that $`\omega `$ Cen stars are born from remnants of not only SNe II but also SNe Ia. The lifetime of SN Ia progenitors is assumed to be 1–3 Gyr. This lifetime can be determined from the observed break in \[O/Fe\] at \[Fe/H\]$`1`$ in the solar neighborhood (Yoshii, Tsujimoto, & Nomoto, 1996) with the help of the age-metallicity relation. SNe Ia starts ejecting Fe at \[Fe/H\]$`1`$ to decrease the \[O/Fe\] ratios.

The metallicity of metal-poor stars is determined by the mass swept up by each SNR together with SN yields. This mass is controlled by the velocity dispersion of gas (TS02). As a result, the observed ADF of these stars constrains the velocity dispersion. It was found that the velocity dispersion $`\sigma _\mathrm{v}`$=36 km s-1 explains the observed ADF in the metal-poor region. A smaller velocity dispersion produces more metal-poor stars than observed, and vice versa. Therefore a constant velocity dispersion of 36 km s-1 is assumed.

The evolution of Fe in $`\omega `$ Cen can then be calculated using this information. The free parameters in the model are the mass fraction $`X_{\mathrm{init}}`$ of stars initially formed in the first two star formation phases, and the mass fraction $`ϵ`$ of stars formed in the dense shell swept up by each SNR. The mass fraction $`X_{\mathrm{init}}`$ is assumed to be $`2.5\times 10^4`$, as adopted for halo field stars (Tsujimoto et al., 2000). This value is assumed in both star formation phases because the results are largely insensitive to this value as long as $`X_{\mathrm{init}}<1`$%. The value of $`ϵ`$ is determined so as to reproduce the observed ADF. The shape of the ADF for \[Fe/H\]$`<1`$ requires $`ϵ`$=$`1.4\times 10^2`$ (first) and $`1.5\times 10^2`$ (second). These combinations of $`X_{\mathrm{init}}`$ and $`ϵ`$ give star formation durations of $`250`$ Myr (first) and $`200`$ Myr (second). The interval between these two star formation phases is set at $`300`$ Myr to account for the predicted enrichment by $`s`$-process elements in the meanwhile. A longer interval of $`500`$ Myr is allowed from this condition as long as SNe Ia do not contribute to chemical enrichment in the second episode. The lower limit for the fraction of gas lost due to SN explosion during the interval is obtainable from the \[Ba/Eu\] ratios in stars with \[Fe/H\]$`>1.6`$. This condition gives a fraction of 70%, which is used in the following calculations. For the SN Ia-induced star formation, $`ϵ`$=$`1.7\times 10^2`$ is adopted to reproduce the extended metal-rich tail. As a result of calculations, the following star formation history for $`\omega `$ Cen is proposed.

The proto-cluster cloud for $`\omega `$ Cen was initially enriched to \[Fe/H\]=$`2.0`$ with \[Ba/Fe\]=$`0.4`$, corresponding to that of halo field stars at the same \[Fe/H\]. From this enriched gas, star formation proceeded for $`250`$ Myr followed by a quiescent period of $`300`$ Myr. The second star formation epoch continued for $`200`$ Myr, followed $`250`$ Myr later by an SN Ia event that initiated SN Ia-induced star formation, which lasted for the next few Gyr. Figure 2a shows the ADF obtained for this model in comparison with the data acquired by van Leeuwen et al. (2000) (filled circles) and Norris et al. (1996) (open circles). The result has been convolved with a Gaussian with dispersion of $`\sigma `$=0.1 dex, which is identical to the measurement error for \[Fe/H\]. The ADF for the proposed model is in good agreement with the data.

The total fraction of gas converted into stars is $``$ 10% of the initial gas. It follows from the present mass of $`\omega `$ Cen $`3\times 10^6`$$`M_{}`$ (Meylan & Mayor, 1986) that the initial mass of the proto-cluster cloud of $`\omega `$ Cen was $`3\times 10^7`$$`M_{}`$. From this initial mass, it is possible to estimate the energy supplied by SNe after the end of star formation in the first episode. The energy from the preceding supernovae is lost from the system by radiation. From the result that $``$ 7% of the initial mass was converted to stars in the first episode, the total energy added by these last SNe amounts to $`8\times 10^{53}`$ erg. The gravitational binding energy of the gas is estimated by the virial theorem to be $`E_\mathrm{g}=GM^2/R=M\sigma _\mathrm{v}^28\times 10^{53}`$ erg, which is comparable to the thermal energy. Thus, part of the gas is expected to be lost from the system. Here, as discussed above, the evolution of \[Ba/Eu\] requires that 70% of the gas was lost due to SNe II explosion. An upper bound of the expelled gas fraction can be deduced from the result that the number of stars produced in the second star formation episode needs to be about a quarter of that produced in the first episode to reproduce the observed ADF, which is in good accord with the claim by Norris et al. (1996). As a consequence, the fraction of remaining gas must have been more than 25%, that is, less than 75% of the gas was lost. Thus the assumed value of 70% satisfies this criterion. From the remaining gas, second stage of enrichment proceeded due to $`2000`$ SNe II in total, which is then followed by third stage induced by $`2500`$ SNe Ia.

For the evolution of Ba in $`\omega `$ Cen, it is assumed that SNe II with $`M_{\mathrm{ms}}=2025M_{}`$ are the dominant sites for $`r`$-process nucleosynthesis (Tsujimoto et al., 2000; Tsujimoto & Shigeyama, 2001), and 2–4 $`M_{}`$ AGB stars are the most likely sites for $`s`$-process nucleosynthesis (Travaglio et al., 1999). Figure 2b is a color-coded frequency distribution of stars in the \[Ba/Fe\]-\[Fe/H\] plane, normalised to unity when integrated over the entire area. In order to make a direct comparison with the data, the frequency distribution has been convolved with a Gaussian with $`\sigma `$= 0.2 dex for \[Ba/Fe\] and $`\sigma `$=0.1 dex for \[Fe/H\]. The result also covers the present observational data points.

## 4 $`\omega `$ Centauri as a Globular Cluster

The quantitative features obtained for $`\omega `$ Cen in the previous section can then be discussed in the context of GC formation. We propose that GCs formed through collisions of the proto-cluster clouds at the halfway of SN-induced star formation. The scheme of GC formation discussed here is described in Figure 3. The key points of this scenario are summarised in this section. Details including the comparison of the ADF calculated using this model with observations have been presented in Shigeyama & Tsujimoto (2003).

### 4.1 Pre-history erased by cloud-cloud collision

The absence of stars with \[Fe/H\]$`<2.5`$ in GCs suggests that the proto-cluster clouds already possessed a certain abundance of heavy elements. A likely mechanism for the formation of such clusters is cloud-cloud collision, in which each cloud undergoes star formation (Murray & Lin, 1993, and references therein). Cloud-cloud collisions can leave shocked gas with some heavy elements but without stars or dark matter due to the expected high relative velocity ($``$200 km s-1), at which the stars and dark matter in each cloud would proceed without being affected by the gravity from these clouds.

### 4.2 Star formation after merging

After two clouds collide, strong shock waves are formed, which compress the gas and leave a dense cloud with sufficient mass for star formation if the collision is nearly head-on. From this compressed gas, stars are assumed to form with metallicity inherited from the gas. Hydrodynamical instabilities (e.g., the Richtmeyer-Meshkov instability) occurring at the interface of two clouds induce turbulent motions. The turbulent diffusion will induce chemical homogeneity in these clouds (Murray & Lin, 1990). In the SN-driven star formation scenario, the star formation history is determined by the evolution of SNRs, which is affected by the environment. A critical indicator of chemical evolution is whether star formation proceeded for a number of generations or ceased after only one or a few generations. This condition is given by comparing the maximum size that an SNR can attain and the size of the cloud. If the maximum size of an SNR exceeds the size of the cloud, the SNR cannot assemble the gas necessary to form stars of the next generation. The resultant GC would then contain a single generation of stars with no dispersion in \[Fe/H\]. If the SNR is smaller than the cloud, the cloud would contain multiple generations of stars with different \[Fe/H\], resembling $`\omega `$ Cen stars. An additional condition for the formation of multiple generations of stars is that the mass fraction $`X_{\mathrm{init}}`$ of stars in a cloud at the beginning should be less than 1%, as discussed previously (Tsujimoto et al., 1999). If $`X_{\mathrm{init}}`$ is larger than 1%, the total gas swept up by the first SNRs exceeds the entire amount of available gas, and thus star formation stops at the first or with a few generations.

For a quantitative and simple discussion, a head-on collision of two identical clouds is considered here. Suppose that each cloud moving at speed $`v_1`$ is spherical and uniform with mass $`M=10^6M_{}`$ and radius $`R=40`$ pc. This mass corresponds to the Jeans mass soon after recombination. The velocity dispersion $`\sigma _\mathrm{v}`$ of $`10`$ km s-1, accounting for the elemental abundance patterns of extremely metal-poor field stars (Shigeyama & Tsujimoto, 1998), allows $`R`$ to be estimated. The density $`\rho _2`$ of the strongly shocked region is given by

$$\rho _2=\rho _1\left(1+\frac{2}{\sqrt{1+\frac{4P_1}{\rho _1v_1^2}}1}\right)\rho _1\left(\frac{\rho _1v_1^2}{P_1}\right),$$
(1)
where $`P_1=2\sigma _\mathrm{v}^2\rho _1/3`$ is the pressure in the pre-shocked gas, and $`\rho _1`$ denotes the initial mean density of the cloud. Here, the shock is assumed to be isothermal because the cooling time is several orders of magnitude shorter than the sound crossing time. The expected isochoric cooling will prevent the merging clouds from expanding after the shock waves reach the surface. As a result, the collision leaves a cloud with a disk-like shape with a half-width of $`W=2R\times (\rho _1/\rho _2)=4GM/(3v_1^2)`$. The shocked cloud may not feed an SNR if the size of an SNR given by $`R_{\mathrm{SNR}}0.9\mathrm{pc}\left(v_1/(200\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1)\right)^{2/3}`$ (Shigeyama & Tsujimoto, 1998) exceeds the width of the cloud. Thus, the cloud with $`R_{\mathrm{SNR}}>W`$ will produce a GC with a single generation of stars, while a cloud with $`R_{\mathrm{SNR}}<W`$ will be able to produce a GC with multiple star generations. This criterion gives the maximum velocity that can produce a GC with some dispersion in \[Fe/H\] for this particular parameter set, as follows,

$$v_{1,\mathrm{max}}33\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\left(\sigma _\mathrm{v}/10\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1\right)^{37/28}\left(M/10^6M_{}\right)^{1/4}.$$
(2)
Since clouds move at $`200`$ km s-1 in the gravitational potential of the Milky Way, it is rare that two clouds would collide with such low velocity. In fact, if all the clouds move at $`200`$ km s-1 and their distribution is isotropic in the velocity space, then the fraction of collisions with $`v_1<33`$ km s-1 is $`0.027`$. The width of the compressed cloud as small as $`W0.15\mathrm{pc}`$ induces chemical homogeneity on a short timescale of $`10^4`$ yr.

On the other hand, the mass and velocity dispersion of the proto-cluster cloud generating $`\omega `$ Cen have been estimated to be $`M3\times 10^7`$$`M_{}`$, $`\sigma _\mathrm{v}36`$ km s-1 from the chemical evolution model presented in section 3. These values together with equation (2) suggest that a supernova does not break up the shocked clouds if two proto-cluster clouds collide with relative velocity ($`2v_1`$) of less than $`700`$ km s-1. Therefore, $`\omega `$ Cen-like clusters are most likely to form from two colliding massive clouds if $`X_{\mathrm{init}}`$ is less than 1%. Such a small $`X_{\mathrm{init}}`$ could be realized by a small relative velocity leading to weak shock-wave compression. After a small mass fraction ($`X_{\mathrm{init}}<1`$%) of first-generation stars had formed in colliding proto-cluster clouds, chemical enrichment due to SN-induced star formation would then have proceeded in $`\omega `$ Cen. A small relative velocity at the collision may lead to chemical inhomogeneity in the compressed proto-cluster cloud of $`\omega `$ Cen, which might be partially responsible for the observed metallicity dispersion.

### 4.3 Final stage

When SNe from the first generation stars break up the gas, it is likely that the available energy from SNe exceeds the gravitational binding energy of the cloud. Since the dynamical timescale of the cloud discussed above ($``$4 Myr) is shorter than that for the evolution of SN II progenitor stars, the stellar component with velocity dispersion much smaller than that of the gas will shrink to form a bound system before SNe expel the remaining gas. In fact, the virial theorem implies that the half mass radius $`R_\mathrm{h}`$ of the newly formed GC is $`R_\mathrm{h}GM_{\mathrm{GC}}/(4\sigma _\mathrm{v}^2)2.2`$ pc. This value is significantly smaller than the initial radius and is in accordance with the observation.

When the star formation repeats for generations as in the proto-cluster cloud for $`\omega `$ Cen, the available energy from SNe must be counted to specify the time of gas removal, as was done for TS02. This energy is found to be insufficient for total gas removal as already discussed in the previous section. Subsequent passage through the Galactic gaseous disk is an alternative process that may have stripped away the remaining gas. This ram pressure stripping was not efficient during the star formation phase in $`\omega `$ Cen because the gas density in the forming Galactic disk during the first few Gyrs is quite small, which is attributed to a slow formation of the Galactic disk inferred from the chemical evolution in the solar neighborhood (Yoshii et al., 1996). The gas density $`\rho _{\mathrm{disk}}`$ of the forming disk at the age of 2 Gyr for instance is estimated to be $``$ 1/4 of the present density. From the present $`\rho _{\mathrm{disk}}`$ of $`0.04`$ $`M_{}`$ pc-3 (Cox, 2000) and the gas density $`\rho _\omega `$ of the proto-cluser cloud for $`\omega `$ Cen during the second and third episodes of $`2`$ $`M_{}`$ pc-3, the timescale $`t_{\mathrm{rp}}`$ for the ram pressure stripping of $`\omega `$ Cen, defined as $`t_{\mathrm{rp}}R/v(2\rho _\omega /\rho _{\mathrm{disk}})^{1/2}`$ (Sarazin, 1988), is $`10^7`$ yr, where $`R`$ and $`v`$ are the radius ($``$100 pc) and the velocity ($``$200 km s-1) of the proto-cluster cloud for $`\omega `$ Cen. On the other hand, the timescale $`t_{\mathrm{pass}}`$ for the passage through the forming disk is estimated to be $`3\times 10^6`$ yr, assuming the present disk scale height of 350 pc. Therefore the ram pressure is not strong enough to strip the gas but is expected to induce a bulk motion of the gas. The gradual increase in the gas density in the forming disk has made $`t_{\mathrm{rp}}`$ comparable to $`t_{\mathrm{pass}}`$ in the next few Gyrs. As a result, the remaning gas after the third episode of star formation in $`\omega `$ Cen is likely to be stripped by the interaction with the forming Galactic disk. In this connection, we will refer to a possibility of the gas stripping by tidal interaction during the star formation phase in $`\omega `$ Cen. Even if $`\omega `$ Cen originally had the orbit with a pericenter of 1 kpc (Dinescu, Girard, & van Altena, 1999), the tidal radius was $``$100 pc, comparable to the radius of the proto-cluster cloud for $`\omega `$ Cen. Furthermore, the orbit might have decayed to the present orbit as discussed by Zhao (2002). The pericenter during the first few Gyrs could be $``$7 kpc. The corresponding tidal radius of $`\omega `$ Cen becomes several hundreds pc. Therefore the tidal stripping is not significant for the evolution of $`\omega `$ Cen.

## 5 CONCLUSIONS

A model that successfully reproduces the observed chemical properties in $`\omega `$ Cen was constructed. The model suggests that the GC $`\omega `$ Cen originated from a cloud-cloud collision that triggered the birth of first-generation stars. Each of the clouds had a mass of $`1.5\times 10^7M_{}`$ and size estimated from the velocity dispersion of $`100`$ pc. The relative velocity of the collision must have been low enough to limit the mass fraction of the first-generation stars to less than 1%. If this wasn’t the case, no dispersion in \[Fe/H\] would be seen in the member stars. The first star formation lasted for $``$ 250 Myr, enriching the gas with heavy elements to \[Fe/H\]$`1.6`$. Supernovae at the end of this epoch were unable to assemble the remaining gas to form stars or expel all the gas. Instead, $`30`$% of the gas remained bound and star formation recommenced $`300`$ Myr after the end of the first star formation epoch. Between the two epochs, AGB stars began to contaminate the remaining gas with $`s`$-process elements up to \[Ba/Fe\]$`+1`$. About 200 Myr later, star formation ceased. Supernovae at the end of this period also failed to expel the gas. Eventually, SNe Ia initiated SN-induced star formation, exclusively supplying Fe to the gas.

This study of $`\omega `$ Cen revealed a new, different picture of the GC formation scenario. In this scenario, first-generation stars are born through a cloud-cloud collision, and the formation of later-generation stars occurs only when the dense shell of SNRs originating from the first-generation SNe is formed. Such a situation is realized only when the relative velocity of the colliding massive clouds is low. Otherwise, only a single generation of stars will be created in the GCs, resulting in no spread in \[Fe/H\]. In the sense that the massive proto-cluster clouds must be rare, as would be low-velocity collisions, $`\omega `$ Cen should indeed be part of a minor population.

We are grateful to the anonymous referee for making useful comments. This work has been partly supported by COE research (07CE2002) and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (11640229, 12640242) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in Japan.