Rapid dynamical mass segregation and properties of fractal star clusters
Abstract
We investigate the evolution of young star clusters using N-body simulations. We confirm that subvirial and fractal-structured clusters will dynamically mass segregate on a short timescale (within 0.5 Myr). We adopt a modified minimum-spanning-tree (MST) method to measure the degree of mass segregation, demonstrating that the stars escaping from a cluster's potential are important for the temporal dependence of mass segregation in the cluster. The form of the initial velocity distribution will also affect the degree of mass segregation. If it depends on radius, the outer parts of the cluster would expand without undergoing collapse. In velocity space, we find 'inverse mass segregation,' which indicates that massive stars have higher velocity dispersions than their lower-mass counterparts.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1103.0406,
title = {Rapid dynamical mass segregation and properties of fractal star clusters},
author = {Jincheng Yu and Richard de Grijs and Li Chen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.0406},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
13 pages and 6 figures based on 14 .eps files