A Statistical Comparison of the Initial Mass Function of Young Embedded Clusters
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From Stars to Super-Planets: The Low-Mass IMF in the Young Cluster IC348
We investigate the low-mass population of the young cluster IC348 down to the deuterium-burning limit, a fiducial boundary between brown dwarf and planetary mass objects, using a new and innovative method for the spectral classification of late-type objects. Using photometric indices, constructed from HST/NICMOS narrow-band imaging, that measure the strength of the 1.9 micron water band, we determine the spectral type and reddening for every M-type star in the field, thereby separating cluster members from the interloper population. Due to the efficiency of our spectral classification technique, our study is complete from approximately 0.7 solar mass to 0.015 solar mass. The mass function derived for the cluster in this interval, dN/d log M alpha M(sup 0.5), is similar to that obtained for the Pleiades, but appears significantly more abundant in brown dwarfs than the mass function for companions to nearby sun-like stars. This provides compelling observational evidence for different formation and evolutionary histories for substellar objects formed in isolation vs. as companions. Because our determination of the IMF is complete to very low masses, we can place interesting constraints on the role of physical processes such as fragmentation in the star and planet formation process and the fraction of dark matter in the Galactic halo that resides in substellar objects.
Najita, Joan R.↗
The stellar content of rich young clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud
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.↗
Hot, Massive Stars in the Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxy, I Zw 18
The extremely metal-poor galaxy I Zw 18, is the Rosetta Stone for understanding z=7-8 galaxies now being discovered by Hubb|e's Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3). Using HST/STIS images and recently obtained HST/COS ultraviolet spectra, we derive information about the hot, massive stars in this galaxy including stellar abundances, constraints on the stellar IMF and mass distribution of young clusters containing hot, massive stars.
Heap, Sara R.↗
WFPC2 observations of the double cluster NGC 1850 in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Hubble Space Telescope-Wide Field/Planetary Camera-2 (HST-WFPC2) optical and ultraviolet imaging observations of the young double cluster NGC 1850 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) are presented. The main cluster, NGC 1850A, is a globular-like cluster and has an age of 50 +/- 10 Myr, while the subcluster, NGC 1850B, which is more loosely distributed, is very young at 4.3 +/- 0.9 Myr. Its young age is confirmed by the detection of a pre-main-sequence population of stars associated to it. The two clusters have considerably different IMF slopes, with the main cluster having a flat slope (f(m) proportional to m(exp -1.4 +/- 0.2)) and the young cluster a much steeper one (f(m) proportional to m(exp -2.6 +/- -0.1)). The LMC field star population displays a broad range of ages, from approximately 0.5 Gyr up to more than 4 Gyr.
Gilmozzi, R.↗
Proceedings of Protostars and Planets V
Oral presentation sessions in this conference include: Clouds and cores; Star formation and protostars; Binaries and multiples; Newborn massive stars; jets and outflows; Clusters and associations; T Tauri stars and disks; Brown dwarfs; Planet formation and evolution; Extrasolar planets; Dust and protoplanetary disks; Early solar system and Astrobiology. Poster presentations included: Clouds and Cores. Collapse and Protostars, Binaries and Multiples, Clusters, Associations, and the IMF, Jets and Outflows, T Tauri Stars and Other Young Stars, Disks and Disk Accretion, Brown Dwarfs, Herbig Ae/Be Stars and Massive Stars, Solar System Objects, Planet Formation, Extrasolar Planets and Planet Detection, Properties of Protoplanetary Disks, Migration and Planetary Orbits and Meteoritics and Astrobiology
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Self-regulated cooling flows in elliptical galaxies and in cluster cores - Is exclusively low mass star formation really necessary?
A self-consistent treatment of the heating by supernovae associated with star formation in a spherically symmetric cooling flow in a cluster core or elliptical galaxy is presented. An initial stellar mass function similar to that in the solar neighborhood is adopted. Inferred star-formation rates, within the cooling region - typically the inner 100 kpc around dominant galaxies at the centers of cooling flows in XD clusters - are reduced by about a factor of 2, relative to rates inferred when the heat input from star formation is ignored. Truncated initial mass functions (IMFs) are also considered, in which massive star formation is suppressed in accordance with previous treatments, and colors are predicted for star formation in cooling flows associated with central dominant elliptical galaxies and with isolated elliptical galaxies surrounded by gaseous coronae. The low inferred cooling-flow rates around isolated elliptical galaxies are found to be insensitive to the upper mass cutoff in the IMF, provided that the upper mass cutoff exceeds 2 M solar mass. Comparison with observed colors favors a cutoff in the IMF above 1 M solar mass in at least two well-studied cluster cooling flows, but a normal IMF cannot be excluded definitively. Models for NGC 1275 support a young (less than about 3 Gyr) cooling flow. As for the isolated elliptical galaxies, the spread in colors is consistent with a normal IMF. A definitive test of the IMF arising via star formation in cooling flows requires either UV spectral data or supernova searches in the cooling-flow-centered galaxies.
Silk, J.↗
Color gradients in cooling flow cluster central galaxies and the ionization of cluster emission line systems
Preliminary results are given for a program to measure color gradients in the central galaxies in clusters with a variety of cooling flow rates. The objectives are to search for extended blue continuum regions indicative of star formation, to study the spatial distribution of star formation, and to make a quantitative measure of the amount of light from young stars, which can lead to a measure of the star formation rate (for an assumed initial mass function). Four clusters with large masses and large cluster H-alpha emission fluxes are found to have an excess of blue light concentrated to the centers of the cluster central galaxy. Assumption of a disk IMF leads to the conclusion that the starlight might play a major role in ionizing the emission line gas in these clusters.
Romanishin, W.↗
Star Formation Rates in Cooling Flow Clusters: A UV Pilot Study with Archival XMM-Newton Optical Monitor Data
We have analyzed XMM-Newton Optical Monitor (OM) UV (180-400 nm) data for a sample of 33 galaxies. 30 are cluster member galaxies, and nine of these are central cluster galaxies (CCGs) in cooling flow clusters having mass deposition rates which span a range of 8 - 525 Solar Mass/yr. By comparing the ratio of UV to 2MASS J band fluxes, we find a significant UV excess in many, but not all, cooling flow CCGs, a finding consistent with the outcome of previous studies based on optical imaging data (McNamara & O'Connell 1989; Cardiel, Gorgas, & Aragon-Salamanca 1998; Crawford et al. 1999). This UV excess is a direct indication of the presence of young massive stars, and therefore recent star formation, in these galaxies. Using the Starburst99 spectral energy distribution (SED) model of continuous star formation over a 900 Myr period, we derive star formation rates of 0.2 - 219 solar Mass/yr for the cooling flow sample. For 2/3 of this sample it is possible to equate Chandra/XMM cooling flow mass deposition rates with UV inferred star formation rates, for a combination of starburst lifetime and IMF slope. This is a pilot study of the well populated XMM UV cluster archive and a more extensive follow up study is currently underway.
Hicks, A. K.↗
Star Formation Rates in Cooling Flow Clusters: A UV Pilot Study with Archival XMM-Newton Optical Monitor Data
We have analyzed XMM-Newton Optical Monitor (OM) UV (180-400 nm) data for a sample of 33 galaxies. 30 are cluster member galaxies, and nine of these are central cluster galaxies (CCGs) in cooling flow clusters having mass deposition rates which span a range of 8 - 525 solar mass per year. By comparing the ratio of UV to 2MASS J band fluxes, we find a significant UV excess in many, but not all, cooling flow CCGs, a finding consistent with the outcome of previous studies based on optical imaging data (McNamara & O Connell 1989; Cardiel, Gorgas, & Aragon-Salamanca 1998; Crawford et al. 1999). This UV excess is a direct indication of the presence of young massive stars, and therefore recent star formation, in these galaxies. Using the Starburst99 spectral energy distribution (SED) model of continuous star formation over a 900 Myr period, we derive star formation rates of 0.2 - 219 solar mass per year for the cooling flow sample. For 2/3 of this sample it is possible to equate Chandra/XMM cooling flow mass deposition rates with UV inferred star formation rates, for a combination of starburst lifetime and IMF slope. This is a pilot study of the well populated XMM UV cluster archive and a more extensive follow up study is currently underway.
Hicks, A. K.↗
The luminosity functions of embedded stellar clusters. 1: Method of solution and analytic results
We describe a method for computing the history of the luminosity function in a young cluster still forming within a molecular cloud complex. Our method, which utilizes detailed results from stellar evolution theory, assumes that clusters arise from the continuous collapse of dense cloud cores over a protracted period of time. It is also assumed that stars reaching the main sequence are distributed in mass according to a prescribed initial mass function (IMF). We keep track separately of the contributions to the luminosity function from the populations of protostars, pre-main-sequence stars, and main-sequence stars. We derive expressions for the fractional contribution of these populations to both the total number of stars produced and the total cluster luminosity. In our model, the number of protostars rises quickly at first, but then levels off to a nearly constant value, which it maintains until the dispersal of the cloud complex. The number fraction of protostars always decreases with time. Averaged over the life of the parent cloud, this fraction is typically a few percent. The protostar mass distribution can be expressed as an integral over the IMF.
Fletcher, Andre B.↗
Dynamics of the young binary LMC cluster NGC 1850
BV CCD images and echelle spectra of 52 supergiants are used to examine the age and internal dynamics of the young binary LMC cluster NGC 1850. A color-magnitude diagram was constructed and found to contain three distinct populations of stars. Using star-subtracted, median filtered BV images, attempts were made to determine ellipticity parameters, BV luminosity profiles were constructed to project radii greater than 40. A power law model was applied to test for the presence of a tidal cutoff in the luminosity profile. Of the 52 stars with echelle spectra, a subset of 36 were used to study the cluster dynamics. A rotational signal in the radial velocities has been detected at the 93-percent confidence level, implying a rotation axis at a position angle of 100 +/- 40 deg. Values for the slope of the mass function were determined using mass luminosity relationships and different forms for the IMF. The current cluster age is similar to its central relaxation time.
Fischer, Philippe↗