Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Jan 1989
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1989apj...336..734e&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 336, Jan. 15, 1989, p. 734-751. Research supported by the Corning Glass Wor
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
72
Astronomical Photography, Globular Clusters, Magellanic Clouds, Open Clusters, Star Clusters, Color-Magnitude Diagram, Luminosity, Mass To Light Ratios, Star Formation, Stellar Evolution, Stellar Mass, Stellar Winds
Scientific paper
Initial mass functions (IMFs) of six young rich clusters in the LMC have been determined from star counts on photographic plates with different limiting magnitudes. Over the range of stellar masses from 1.5 to 6 solar masses, very flat IMF slopes between -0.2 and 0.8 are found. Possible explanations for the discrepancy between these results and those of Mateo (1988), who found step IMFs for a different sample of clusters in the Magellanic Clouds, are considered, and no obvious ones are found. The flat IMFs imply smaller mass-to-light ratios than previously assumed and reinforce previous conclusions that the clusters have unbound halos. Flat IMFs also imply that stellar winds would have been very important in restructuring and expelling the gas from a protocluster and that there would have been many supernovae early in the history of a supercluster.
Elson Rebecca A. W.
Fall Michael S.
Freeman Kenneth C.
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