The evolution of the luminosity function of young open clusters

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

1

Scientific paper

The luminosity function of a star cluster evolves markedly during the pre-main sequence phase. With an assumed initial mass function and pre-main sequence tracks, we calculate a set of monochromatic luminosity functions which, when compared with observations, can be used to infer the age and star formation history (coeval versus intermittent) of a star cluster. Applied to the Trapezium cluster, our model suggests an age close to a million years, whereas in IC 348 the age estimate yields 4-6 million years and continual bursts of star formation seem to have occurred in this cluster. CCD imaging observations in the I-band are presented for NGC 663, for which an age of 10-30 million years is inferred. The initial mass function for NGC 663 in the range 2-7.1 Msolar has a slope of -0.77 +/- 0.20, much shallower than that for the solar neighborhood field stars. We interpret this being due to mass segregation in the cluster. We interpret this as being due to mass segregation in the cluster.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The evolution of the luminosity function of young open clusters does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The evolution of the luminosity function of young open clusters, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The evolution of the luminosity function of young open clusters will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1224267

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.