Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21741102l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #411.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
We present Keck laser guide star adaptive optics (AO) observations of the massive young star clusters W51 G48.9-0.3 and W49A Cluster 1 in an effort to test the universality of the initial mass function (IMF) in extreme star forming environments. High-precision AO astrometry over a 1 year time baseline is successfully used to separate cluster members from contaminating field objects with differential proper motions as small as 0.5 mas/yr (15 km/s at 6 pc). We have developed improved AO photometric analysis techniques and use the near-infrared photometry of the proper motion selected cluster members to construct mass functions corrected for spatially varying extinction and incompleteness. Contrary to previous results for W51, we measure a mass function that has a high-mass end slope consistent with a Salpeter IMF and find that the observed cluster mass within 0.3 pc is <700 solar masses between 1 and 60 solar masses.
Ghez Andrea M.
Lu Jessica R.
McCrady Nate
Yelda Sylvana
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