ARE GRAVOTHERMAL OSCILLATIONS GRAVOTHERMAL?

	     Stephen L. W. McMillan and Kimberly A. Engle


The defining characteristics of gravothermal oscillations in star
clusters are (1) that they are driven by temperature inversions just
outside the core, (2) that their long-term behavior is largely
unrelated to the heat source triggering them, and (3) that, once
established, they persist even in the absence of continued energy
input.  We examine critically the properties of the large-amplitude
oscillations seen in Fokker-Planck simulations of globular clusters,
with both continuous and stochastic binary heating.  We conclude that,
in most cases, none of the above three characteristics is present.