English

Rapid Mass Segregation in Massive Star Clusters

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2012-11-01 v1

Abstract

Several dynamical scenarios have been proposed that can lead to prompt mass segregation on the crossing time scale of a young cluster. They generally rely on cool and/or clumpy initial conditions, and are most relevant to small systems. As a counterpoint, we present a novel dynamical mechanism that can operate in relatively large, homogeneous, cool or cold systems. This mechanism may be important in understanding the assembly of large mass-segregated clusters from smaller clumps.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1210.8200,
  title  = {Rapid Mass Segregation in Massive Star Clusters},
  author = {Stephen McMillan and Enrico Vesperini and Nicholas Kruczek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.8200},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

2 pages, 2 figures; Invited talk presented as Special Session 1 "Origin and Complexity of Massive Star Clusters" at IAU General Assembly XXVIII, Beijing 2012. To appear in Highlights of Astronomy

R2 v1 2026-06-21T22:30:29.151Z