This article was co-authored by all invited speakers at the Joint Discussion on `Neutron Stars and Black Holes in Star Clusters,' which took place during the IAU General Assembly in Prague, Czech Republic, on August 17 and 18, 2006. Each section presents a

HighlightsofAstronomy,Volume14

XXVIthIAUGeneralAssembly,August2006

K.A.vanderHucht,ed.c2006InternationalAstronomicalUnion DOI:00.0000/X000000000000000XNeutronstarsandblackholesinstarclusters

F.A.Rasio1,H.Baumgardt2,A.Corongiu3,F.D’Antona4,

G.Fabbiano5,J.M.Fregeau1,K.Gebhardt6,C.O.Heinke1,P.Hut7,

N.Ivanova8,T.J.Maccarone9,S.M.Ransom10,N.A.Webb11

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arXiv:astro-ph/0611615v1 20 Nov 2006NorthwesternUniversity,DeptofPhysicsandAstronomy,Evanston,Illinois,USA2ArgelanderInstitutf¨urAstronomie,UniversityofBonn,Germany3INAF,OsservatoriodiCagliarieUniversit`adiCagliari,Italy4OsservatorioAstronomicodiRoma,Monteporzio,Italy5Harvard-SmithsonianCenterforAstrophysics,Cambridge,Massachusetts,USA6AstronomyDepartment,UniversityofTexasatAustin,USA7InstituteforAdvancedStudy,Princeton,NewJersey,USA8CanadianInstituteforTheoreticalAstrophysics,Toronto,Ontario,Canada9SchoolofPhysicsandAstronomy,UniversityofSouthampton,UK10NRAO,Charlottesville,Virginia,USA11Centred’EtudeSpatialedesRayonnements,Toulouse,France1.IntroductionThisarticlewasco-authoredbyallinvitedspeakersattheJointDiscussionon“Neu-tronStarsandBlackHolesinStarClusters,”whichtookplaceduringtheIAUGeneralAssemblyinPrague,CzechRepublic,onAugust17and18,2006.Eachsectionpresentsashortsummaryofrecentdevelopmentsinakeyareaofresearch,incorporatingthemainideasexpressedduringthecorrespondingpaneldiscussionatthemeeting.Ourmeeting,whichhadcloseto300registeredparticipants,wasbroadlyaimedatthelargecommunityofastronomersaroundtheworldworkingontheformationandevolu-tionofcompactobjectsandinteractingbinarysystemsindensestarclusters,suchasglobularclustersandgalacticnuclei.Themainscienti ctopicscutacrossalltraditionalboundaries,includingGalacticandextragalacticastronomy,environmentsfromyoungstarburststooldglobularclusters,phenomenafromradiopulsarstogamma-raybursts,andobservationsusingground-basedandspace-basedtelescopes,withasigni cantcom-ponentofgravitational-waveastronomyandrelativisticastrophysics.Greatadvanceshaveoccurredinthis eldduringthepastfewyears,includingthein-troductionoffundamentallynewtheoreticalparadigmsfortheformationandevolutionofcompactobjectsinbinariesaswellascountlessnewdiscoveriesbyastronomersthat

havechallengedmanyacceptedmodels.Someofthehighlightsinclude:anearlycompletecensusofallthemillisecondpulsarsin47Tucanae; rstdetectionsofmanynewradiopulsarsinotherclusters,particularlyTerzan5;detailedstudiesofX-raybinarypopula-tionsandtheirluminosityfunctionsinmanygalaxiesandextragalacticglobularclusters;increasingevidenceforintermediate-massblackholesinclustersandgreatlyimprovedtheoreticalunderstandingoftheirpossibleformationprocesses.

Thenextfewyearswillproveatleastasexciting,withmanymoredatasetscomingfromrecentlyorsoon-to-belaunchedsatellites,manynewobjectsfoundinextensivedeepradioandX-raysurveys,andfollow-upspectroscopyandphotometrywithopti-caltelescopes.Onthetheoreticalside,advancesincomputercodesandspecial-purpose

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