Related papers: Statistical fractal analysis of 25 young star clus…
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…
In this work we study the internal spatial structure of 16 open clusters in the Milky Way spanning a wide range of ages. For this, we use the minimum spanning tree method (the Q parameter, which enables one to classify the star distribution…
We study the degree of angular substructure in the stellar position distribution of young members of Galactic star-forming regions, looking for correlations with distance from cluster center, surface number density of stars, and local…
We investigate the structural evolution of young star clusters forming within centrally concentrated molecular clouds. Our simulations use the Torch framework, which integrates the FLASH magnetohydrodynamics code with the AMUSE environment,…
Recent observations have revealed a variety of young star clusters, including embedded systems, young massive clusters, and associations. We study the formation and dynamical evolution of these clusters using a combination of simulations…
Many young star clusters appear to be fractal, i.e. they appear to be concentrated in a nested hierarchy of clusters within clusters. We present a new algorithm for statistically analysing the distribution of stars to quantify the level of…
We simulate the dynamics of fractal star clusters, in order to investigate the evolution of substructure in recently formed clusters. The velocity dispersion is found to be the key parameter determining the survival of substructure. In…
The Interstellar Medium has a fractal structure, in the sense that gas and dust distribute in a hierarchical and self-similar manner. Stars in new-born cluster probably follow the same fractal patterns of their parent molecular clouds.…
We review a range of stastistical methods for analyzing the structures of star clusters, and derive a new measure ${\cal Q}$ which both quantifies, and distinguishes between, a (relatively smooth) large-scale radial density gradient and…
More and more observations indicate that young star clusters could retain imprints of their formation process. In particular, the degree of substructuring and rotation are possibly the direct result of the collapse of the parent molecular…
A high number of embedded clusters is found in the Galaxy. Depending on the formation scenario, most of them can evolve to unbounded groups that are dissolved within a few tens of Myr. A systematic study of young stellar clusters showing…
Understanding the formation and evolution of young star clusters requires quantitative statistical measures of their structure. We investigate the structures of observed and modelled star-forming clusters. By considering the different…
We review progress in numerical simulations of star cluster formation. These simulations involve the bottom-up assembly of clusters through hierarchical mergers, which produces a fractal stellar distribution at young (~0.5 Myr) ages. The…
We analyze the physical properties of stellar clusters that are detected in massive star-forming regions in the MYStIX project--a comparative, multiwavelength study of young stellar clusters within 3.6 kpc that contain at least one O-type…
This paper investigates the dynamical evolution of embedded stellar clusters from the protocluster stage, through the embedded star-forming phase, and out to ages of 10 Myr -- after the gas has been removed from the cluster. The relevant…
We determine the distribution of stellar surface densities, \Sigma, from models of static and dynamically evolving star clusters with different morphologies, including both radially smooth and substructured clusters. We find that the \Sigma…
Observations of the spatial distributions of young stars in star-forming regions can be linked to the theory of clustered star formation using spatial statistical methods. The MYStIX project provides rich samples of young stars from the…
We investigate the properties and evolution of star particles in two simulations of isolated spiral galaxies, and two galaxies from cosmological simulations. Unlike previous numerical work, where typically each star particle represents one…
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…
The extent to which the projected distribution of stars in a cluster is due to a large-scale radial gradient, and the extent to which it is due to fractal sub-structure, can be quantified -- statistically -- using the measure ${\cal Q} =…