Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1999-11-30
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
29 pages, 6 tables, 11 figures included + 3 external files, accepted for publication by Ap.J
Scientific paper
10.1086/308628
We report the result of a study in which we have used very deep broadband V and I WFPC2 images of the R136 cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud from the HST archive, to sample the luminosity function below the detection limit of 2.8 Mo previously reached. In these new deeper images, we detect stars down to a limiting magnitude of m_F555W = 24.7 (~ 1 magnitude deeper than previous works), and identify a population of red stars evenly distributed in the surrounding of the R136 cluster. A comparison of our color-magnitude diagram with recentely computed evolutionary tracks indicates that these red objects are pre-main sequence stars in the mass range 0.6 - 3 Mo. We construct the initial mass function (IMF) in the 1.35 - 6.5 Mo range and find that, after correcting for incompleteness, the IMF shows a definite flattening below ~ 2 Mo. We discuss the implications of this result for the R136 cluster and for our understanding of starburst galaxies formation and evolution in general.
Clampin Mark
de Marchi Guido
Leitherer Claus
Nota Antonella
Sirianni Marco
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