We trace the dynamical evolution of dark matter (DM) content in NGC 6397, one of the native Galactic globular clusters (GCs). The relatively strong tidal field (Galactocentric radius of ~ 6 kpc) and short relaxation timescale (~ 0.3 Gyr) of the cluster can cause a significant amount of DM particles to evaporate from the cluster in the Hubble time. Thus, the cluster can initially contain a non-negligible amount of DM. Using the most advanced Fokker-Planck (FP) method, we calculate the dynamical evolution of GCs for numerous initial conditions to determine the maximum initial DM content in NGC 6397 that matches the present-day brightness and velocity dispersion profiles of the cluster. We find that the maximum allowed initial DM mass is slightly less than the initial stellar mass in the cluster. Our findings imply that NGC 6397 did not initially contain a significant amount of DM, and is similar to that of NGC 2419, the remotest and the most massive Galactic GC.

The first large-format CCD color-magnitude diagram (CMD) in the B and V passbands is presented for the Galactic globular cluster M53 (NGC 5024). We have discovered 117 new blue straggler (BS) candidates in the field of M53. The analysis of bright BS stars (V <19.0) clearly shows a bimodal radial distribution, with a high frequency in the inner and outer regions. The distribution is similar to that found in M3, a globular cluster with similar central density and concentration.

We present the systematic variations of Hβ index of simple stellar populations due to horizontal-branch (HB) stars. Most of the previous works have been done without careful considerations of HB stars. Since the Balmer line strengths are very sensitive to the temperature, including the HB stars are quite important. We found that the strength of H,6 index is strongly affected by HB stars, and hence the age estimation without careful consideration of the variation of HB morphology with metallicity and age would underestimate the ages of ellipticals.

New population synthesis models, with the effects of metallicity spread and the horizontal-branch (HB) morphology, provide a way to break the well-known age-metallicity degeneracy in the analysis of the integrated light of elliptical galaxies. Our models suggest that the far- UV radiation of these systems is dominated by a minority population of metal-poor, hot HB stars and their post-HB progeny, while the optical radiation is dominated by a metal-rich population. The systematic variation of UV upturn depends on the contribution from metal-poor, hot HB stars and their post-HB progeny, which in turn depends on the ages of old stellar populations in galaxies. Our result implies a prolonged epoch of galaxy formation, in the sense that more massive galaxies (in denser environments) formed first. Our models also suggest that the strenghth of Hβ index is strongly affected by HB stars, and hence previous age estimation without detailed modeling of the HB would underestimate the ages of ellipticals by ~7 Gyr.