Mass Function Of Young Clusters Research Articles

The NGC 7742 star cluster luminosity function: a population analysis revisited

We re-examine the properties of the star cluster population in the circumnuclear starburst ring in the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 7742, whose young cluster mass function has been reported to exhibit significant deviations from the canonical power law. We base our reassessment on the clusters’ luminosities (an observational quantity) rather than their masses (a derived quantity), and confirm conclusively that the galaxy’s starburst-ring clusters—and particularly the youngest subsample, —show evidence of a turnover in the cluster luminosity function well above the 90% completeness limit adopted to ensure the reliability of our results. This confirmation emphasizes the unique conundrum posed by this unusual cluster population.

STELLAR AGE SPREADS IN CLUSTERS AS IMPRINTS OF CLUSTER-PARENT CLUMP DENSITIES

It has recently been suggested that high-density clusters have stellar age distributions narrower than that of the Orion Nebula Cluster, indicating a possible trend of narrower age distributions for denser clusters. We show this effect to likely arise from star formation being faster in gas with a higher density. We model the star formation history of molecular clumps in equilibrium by associating a star formation efficiency (SFE) per free-fall time, \eff, to their volume density profile. Our model predicts a steady decline of the star formation rate (SFR), which we quantify with its half-life time, namely, the time needed for the SFR to drop to half its initial value. Given the uncertainties affecting the SFE per free-fall time, we consider two distinct values: 0.1 and 0.01. For isothermal spheres, \eff=0.1 leads to a half-life time of order the clump free-fall time, \tff. Therefore, the age distributions of stars formed in high-density clumps have smaller full-widths at half-maximum than those of stars formed in low-density clumps. When \eff=0.01, the half-life time is 10 times longer. We explore what happens if the star formation duration is shorter than 10\tff, that is, if the half-life time of the SFR cannot be defined. There, we build on the invariance of the shape of the young cluster mass function to show that an anti-correlation between clump density and star formation duration is expected. Therefore, regardless of whether the star formation duration is longer than the SFR half-life time, denser molecular clumps yield narrower star age distributions in clusters. Published densities and stellar age spreads of young clusters actually suggest that the time-scale for star formation is of order 1-4\tff. We conclude that there is no need to invoke the existence of multiple cluster formation mechanisms to explain the observed range of stellar age spreads in clusters.

Empirical near-infrared colors for low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the Orion Nebula Cluster

Atmospheric and evolutionary models for low-mass stars rely on approximate assumptions on the physics of the stellar structure and the atmospheric radiative transfer. This leads to biased theoretical predictions on the photospheric Spectral Energy Distributions of Pre-Main Sequence (PMS) stars, and affects the derivation of stellar parameters from photometric data. Our goal is to correct the biases present in the theoretical predictions for the near-IR photometry of low-mass PMS stars. Using empirical intrinsic IR colors, we assess the accuracy of current synthetic spectral libraries and evolutionary models. We consider a sample of ~300 PMS stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster (age 1 Myr) with measured luminosities, temperatures and photospheric JHKs photometry. By analyzing the photospheric colors of our sample of stars, we find that the synthetic JHKs photometry provided by theoretical spectral templates for late spectral types (>K6) are accurate at the level of ~0.2 mag, while colors are accurate at ~0.1 mag. We tabulate the intrinsic photospheric colors, appropriate for the Orion Nebula Cluster, in the range K6-M8.5. They can be conveniently used as templates for the intrinsic colors of other young (age<5 Myr) stellar clusters. An empirical correction of the atmospheric templates can fix the discrepancies between expected and observed colors. Still, other biases in the evolutionary models prevent a more robust comparison between observations and theoretical absolute magnitudes. In particular, PMS evolutionary models seem to consistently underestimate the intrinsic near-infrared flux at the very late spectral types, and this may introduce spurious features in the low-mass end of the photometrically-determined Initial Mass Function of young clusters.

Early dynamical evolution of star cluster systems

AbstractViolent relaxation, the protocluster dynamical response to the expulsion of its residual star-forming gas, is a short albeit crucial episode in the evolution of star clusters and star cluster systems. Because it is heavily driven by cluster-formation and environmental conditions, it is a potentially highly rewarding phase in terms of probing star formation and galaxy evolution. In this contribution, I review how cluster-formation and environmental conditions affect the shape of the young cluster mass function and the relation between the present star-formation rate of galaxies and the mass of their young, most massive cluster.

The Low End of the Initial Mass Function in Young Clusters. II. Evidence for Primordial Mass Segregation in NGC 330 in the Small Magellanic Cloud

As part of a larger program aimed at investigating the universality of the initial mass function (IMF) at low masses in a number of young clusters in the LMC and SMC, we present a new study of the low end of the stellar IMF of NGC 330, the richest young star cluster in the SMC, from deep broadband V and I images obtained with HST/WFPC2. We detect stars down to a limiting magnitude of m555 = 24.9, which corresponds to stellar masses of ~ 0.8 M? at the distance of the SMC. A comparison of the cluster color-magnitude diagram with theoretical evolutionary tracks indicates an age of ~30 Myr for NGC 330, in agreement with previous published results. We derive the cluster luminosity function, which we correct for background contamination using an adjacent SMC field, and construct the mass function in the 1-7 M? mass range. Given the young cluster age, the MF can well approximate the IMF. We find that the IMF in the central cluster regions (within 30'') is well reproduced by a power law with a slope consistent with Salpeter's. In addition, the richness of the cluster allows us to investigate the IMF as a function of radial distance from the center. We find that the IMF becomes steeper at increasing distances from the cluster center (between 30'' and 90''), with the number of massive stars (> 5 M?) decreasing from the core to the outskirts of the cluster 5 times more rapidly than the less-massive objects ( 1 M?). We believe the observed mass segregation to be of a primordial nature rather than dynamical since the age of NGC 330 is 10 times shorter than the expected relaxation time of the cluster.

Stellar luminosity functions of rich star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We show the results of deep V and I HST photometry of 6 rich star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud with different ages and metallicities. The number of stars with measured magnitudes in each cluster varies from about 3000 to 10 000 stars. We build stellar density and surface brightness profiles for the clusters and extract half-light radii and other structural parameters for each. We also obtain luminosity functions, , down to , and investigate their dependence with distance from the cluster centre well beyond their half-light radius. In all clusters we find a systematic increase in the luminosity functions slope, , with radial distance from the centre. Among the clusters displaying significant mass segregation are the 2 youngest in the sample: NGC 1805, NGC 1818. For these two clusters we obtain present day mass functions. The NGC 1818 mass function is in excellent agreement with that derived by other authors, also using HST data. The young cluster mass function slopes differ, that of NGC 1805 being systematically steeper than NGC 1818. Since these are very young stellar systems ( Myrs), these variations may reflect the initial conditions rather than evolution due to internal dynamics.

Low‐Mass Star Formation and the Initial Mass Function in the ρ Ophiuchi Cloud Core

We have obtained moderate-resolution (R = 800-1200) K-band spectra for ~100 stars within and surrounding the cloud core of ρ Oph. We have measured spectral types and continuum veilings and have combined this information with results from new deep imaging. Using the latest evolutionary tracks of D'Antona & Mazzitelli to interpret the H-R diagram for ρ Oph, we infer ages ranging between 0.1 and 1 Myr for the class II and III sources (i.e., those that have emerged from their natal cocoons). A few stars may be slightly older. The initial mass function (IMF) peaks at about 0.4 M☉ and slowly declines to the hydrogen-burning limit with a slope of ~-0.5 in logarithmic units (Salpeter is +1.35). Our lower limits on the numbers of substellar objects demonstrate that the IMF probably does not fall more steeply below the hydrogen-burning limit, at least down to ~0.02 M☉. The derived IMF is consistent with previous findings that the ρ Oph IMF is roughly flat from 0.05 to 1 M☉. The exact shape of the mass function remains a function of the theoretical evolutionary tracks and, at the lowest masses, the conversion from spectral types to effective temperatures. We then make the first comparison of mass functions of stars and prestellar clumps measured in the same region. The similar behavior of the two mass functions in ρ Oph supports the suggestion of Motte et al. and Testi & Sargent that the stellar mass function in young clusters is a direct product of the process of cloud fragmentation. We have also studied the very young and often still embedded class I and flat-spectrum objects. After considering the effect of extinction on the SED classifications of the sample, we find that ~17% of the ρ Oph stars are class I, implying ~0.1 Myr for the lifetime of this stage. In spectra separated by 2 yr, we observe simultaneous variability in the Brγ emission and K-band continuum veiling for two stars, where the hydrogen emission is brighter in the more heavily veiled data. This behavior indicates that the disk may contribute significantly to continuous K-band emission, in contrast to the proposal that the infalling envelope always dominates. Our detection of strong 2 μm veiling (rK = 1-4) in several class II and III stars, which should have disks but little envelope material, further supports this proposition. We also detect absorption features in the spectra of ~25% of class I and flat-spectrum sources, demonstrating the feasibility of studying the photospheres of extremely young protostars.

Spectroscopy of Brown Dwarf Candidates in the ρ Ophiuchi Molecular Core

We present an analysis of low-resolution infrared spectra for 20 brown dwarf candidates in the core of the ρ Ophiuchi molecular cloud. Fifteen of the sources display absorption-line spectra characteristic of late-type stars. By comparing the depths of water vapor absorption bands in our candidate objects with a grid of M dwarf standards, we derive spectral types that are independent of reddening. Optical spectroscopy of one brown dwarf candidate confirms the spectral type derived from the water bands. Combining their spectral types with published near-infrared photometry, effective temperatures and bolometric stellar luminosities are derived, enabling us to place our sample on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We compare the positions of the brown dwarf candidates in this diagram with two sets of theoretical models in order to estimate their masses and ages. Considering uncertainties in placing the candidates in the H-R diagram, six objects consistently lie in the brown dwarf regime and another five objects lie in the transition region between stellar and substellar objects. The ages inferred for the sample are consistent with those derived for higher mass association members. Three of the newly identified brown dwarfs display infrared excesses at λ = 2.2 μm, suggesting that young brown dwarfs can have active accretion disks. Comparing our mass estimates of the brown dwarf candidates with those derived from photometric data alone suggests that spectroscopy is an essential component of investigations of the mass functions of young clusters.

The Low‐Mass Initial Mass Function in Young Clusters: L1495E

We have developed a technique of IR spectral classification in which we use K-band spectra (R ~ 1000) to derive the spectral types and continuum veilings of young, late-type stars (~1 Myr, >G0). We show close agreement between the spectral types derived in this manner and those obtained optically. We complement previous optical spectroscopy with IR spectra of the most heavily embedded members of the young, embedded cluster L1495E. We critically analyze the translation between observable (spectral type, photometry) and theoretical (Teff, Lbol) parameters and use these data to construct an H-R diagram. We find that the evolutionary tracks of D'Antona & Mazzitelli imply a coeval population of ≤1 Myr and a plausible initial mass function (IMF). However, these models may underestimate the masses of objects near and below the hydrogen burning limit. The models of Swenson produce implausibly old ages and the models of Baraffe et al. yield somewhat old ages and an implausible IMF. We use infrared imaging to show that the spectroscopic sample for this cluster may be seriously incomplete below ~0.15 M☉. After applying a completeness correction to the IMF derived with the tracks of D'Antona & Mazzitelli, we find no evidence for a turnover at low masses; the IMF appears roughly flat in logarithmic mass units. Compared to the results of photometric studies of ρ Oph and NGC 2024, the IMF appears roughly invariant among star-forming environments representing a 2 order of magnitude range in the density of young stars. However, the detailed behavior of the IMF from low stellar masses into the substellar regime will remain uncertain until (1) better evolutionary tracks are available and (2) the sources in the photometric completeness correction can be spectroscopically confirmed as low-mass cluster members.