Dynamical mass estimates of young massive clusters in NGC1140 and M83

Abstract

We present virial mass estimates of young massive clusters (YMCs) in the starburst galaxies NGC1140 and M83, determined from high spectral resolution VLT echelle spectroscopy and high spatial resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging. The survivability of such clusters is important in testing the scenario that YMCs are potentially proto-globular clusters. As young clusters, they lie in the domain in which dynamical masses appear to overestimate true cluster masses, most likely due to the clusters not being virialised. We find that the dynamical mass of NGC1140-1 is approximately ten times greater than its photometric mass. We propose that the most likely explanation for this disparity is the crowded environment of NGC1140-1, rather than this being solely due to a lack of virial equilibrium.