Stellar encounters involving massive stars in young clusters
We model collisions between pre-main-sequence stars using a smoothed particle hydrodynamics method. Assuming that all collisions lead to simple mergers, we use derived merger cross-sections to calculate the time-scale to make a 50-M-circle dot star by collisions within the core of a stellar cluster as a function of stellar number density. We show that a 50-M-circle dot star may be produced in this
