Young star clusters in interacting galaxies – NGC 1487 and NGC 4038/4039

Abstract

We estimate the dynamical masses of several young (~10 Myr) massive star clusters in two interacting galaxies, NGC 4038/4039 (The Antennae) and NGC 1487, under the assumption of virial equilibrium. These are compared with photometric mass estimates from K-band photometry and assuming a standard Kroupa IMF. The clusters were selected to have near-infrared colors dominated by red supergiants, and hence to be old enough to have survived the earliest phases of cluster evolution when the interstellar medium is rapidly swept out from the cluster, supported by the fact that there is no obvious Halpha emission associated with the clusters. All but one of the Antennae clusters have dynamical and photometric mass estimates which are within a factor ~2 of one another, implying both that standard IMFs provide a good approximation to the IMF of these clusters, and that there is no significant extra-virial motion, as would be expected if they were rapidly dispersing. These results suggest that almost all of the Antennae clusters in our sample have survived the gas removal phase as bound or marginally bound objects. Two of the three NGC 1487 clusters studied here have M_dyn estimates which are significantly larger than the photometric mass estimates. At least one of these two clusters, and one in the Antennae, may be actively in the process of dissolving. The process of dissolution contributes a component of non-virial motion to the integrated velocity measurements, resulting in an estimated M_dyn which is too high relative to the amount of measured stellar light. The dissolution candidates in both galaxies are amongst the clusters with the lowest pressures/densities measured in our sample.