The stellar mass spectrum of the open cluster NGC 3293

Abstract

We have obtained and analyzed UBVRICCD frames of the young, 4–10 Myr, open cluster NGC 3293 and the surrounding field in order to study its stellar content and determine the cluster’s IMF. We found significantly fewer lower mass stars, M≤2.5M⊙, than expected. This is particularly so if a single age for the cluster of 4.6 Myr is adopted as derived from fitting evolutionary models to the upper main sequence. Some intermediate-mass stars near the main sequence in the HR diagram imply an age for the cluster of about 10 Myr. When compared with the Scalo (The stellar initial mass function. ASP conference series, vol. 24, p. 201, 1998) IMF scaled to the cluster IMF in the intermediate mass range, 2.5≤M/M⊙≤8.0 where there is good agreement, the high mass stars have a distinctly flatter IMF, indicating an over abundance of these stars, and there is a sharp turnover in the distribution at lower masses. The radial density distribution of cluster stars in the massive and intermediate mass regimes indicate that these stars are more concentrated to the cluster core whereas the lower-mass stars show little concentration. We suggest that this is evidence supporting the formation of massive stars through accretion and/or coagulation processes in denser cluster cores at the expense of the lower mass proto-stars.