The M/L ratio of massive young clusters

Details The M/L ratio of massive young clusters The M/L ratio of massive young clusters

2005-02-25

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0502530v1

ApJ 2005, 620, 27

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Draft version of an ApJ letter

Scientific paper

10.1086/428398

We point out a strong time-evolution of the mass-to-light conversion factor \eta commonly used to estimate masses of dense star clusters from observed cluster radii and stellar velocity dispersions. We use a gas-dynamical model coupled with the Cambridge stellar evolution tracks to compute line-of-sight velocity dispersions and half-light radii weighted by the luminosity. Stars at birth are assumed to follow the Salpeter mass function in the range [0.15--17 M_\sun]. We find that $\eta$, and hence the estimated cluster mass, increases by factors as large as 3 over time-scales of 20 million years. Increasing the upper mass limit to $50 M_\sun$ leads to a sharp rise of similar amplitude but in as little as 10 million years. Fitting truncated isothermal (Michie-King) models to the projected light profile leads to over-estimates of the concentration par ameter c of $\delta c\approx 0.3$ compared to the same functional fit applied to the proj ected mass density.

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