Related papers: Constraining star cluster disruption mechanisms
Observations have revealed that most stars are born in clusters. These systems, containing from tens to thousands of stars and typically significant mass in gas in the youngest systems, evolve due to a combination of stellar and star-gas…
The young star clusters we observe today are the building blocks of a new generation of stars and planets in our Galaxy and beyond. Despite their fundamental role we still lack knowledge about the conditions under which star clusters form…
(ABBREVIATED:) The large majority of extragalactic star cluster studies done to date have essentially used two or three-passband aperture photometry, combined with theoretical stellar population synthesis models, to obtain age, mass and…
In young star clusters, the density can be high enough and the velocity dispersion low enough for stars to collide and merge with a significant probability. This has been suggested as a possible way to build up the high-mass portion of the…
The isothermal gravitational collapse and fragmentation of a molecular cloud region and the subsequent formation of a protostellar cluster is investigated numerically. The clump mass spectrum which forms during the fragmentation phase can…
What is the difference between a long-lived unstable (or quasi-stable) multiple star system and a bona fide star cluster? In this paper, we present a possible framework to address this question, by studying the distributions of disruption…
Star formation is spatially clustered across a range of environments, from dense stellar clusters to unbound associations. As a result, radiative or dynamical interactions with neighbouring stars disrupt (proto)planetary systems and limit…
We study the evolution of populations of binary stars within massive cluster-forming regions. We simulate the formation of young massive star clusters within giant molecular clouds with masses ranging from 2 x 10$^{4}$ to 3.2 x 10$^{5}$…
Observations and N-body simulations both support a simple relation for the disruption time of a cluster as a function of its mass of the form: t_dis = t_4 * (M/10^4 Msun)^gamma. The scaling factor t_4 seems to depend strongly on the…
Star clusters form in dense, hierarchically collapsing gas clouds. Bulk kinetic energy is transformed to turbulence with stars forming from cores fed by filaments. In the most compact regions, stellar feedback is least effective in removing…
Star clusters are evolving n-body systems. We discuss the early dynamics of star clusters, the process of primordial mass segregation and clustering observed in certain young clusters. We discuss how the dynamics coupled with stellar…
Both simulations and observations indicate that stars form in filamentary, hierarchically clustered associations, most of which disperse into their galactic field once feedback destroys their parent clouds. However, during their early…
The analysis of the distribution of stars in open clusters may yield important information on the star formation process and early dynamical evolution of stellar clusters. Here we address this issue by systematically characterizing the…
We investigate the formation of both clustered and distributed populations of young stars in a single molecular cloud. We present a numerical simulation of a 10,000 solar mass elongated, turbulent, molecular cloud and the formation of over…
We present an updated catalog of 1300 objects in the field of M31, including 670 likely star clusters of various types. Archival images were inspected to confirm cluster classifications where possible, but most of the classifications were…
We use UBVI,Ha images of the Whirlpool galaxy, M51, taken with the ACS and WFPC2 cameras on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to select star clusters, and to estimate their masses and ages by comparing their observed colors with predictions…
We investigate the stellar populations of galaxies in clusters at different dynamical stages, aiming to identify possible effects of the relaxation state of the cluster or subcluster on the star formation histories of its galaxies. We have…
The process that leads to the formation and early evolution of low-mass stars is in a broad sense well understood theoretically and carefully traced observationally. The largest uncertainties in this framework reside in the poorly known…
During star cluster formation, ongoing mass accretion is resisted by stellar feedback in the form of protostellar outflows from the low-mass stars and photo-ionization and radiation pressure feedback from the massive stars. We model the…
Context. Stochasticity and physical parameter degeneracy problems complicate the derivation of the parameters (age, mass, and extinction) of unresolved star clusters when using broad-band photometry. Aims. We develop a method to simulate…