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The initial luminosity and mass functions of Galactic open clusters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2008

Hans Zinnecker ,
Anatoly E. Piskunov ,
Nina V. Kharchenko ,
Siegfried Röser ,
Elena Schilbach  and
Ralf-Dieter Scholz
Hans Zinnecker
Affiliation:
Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam, Germany email: hzinnecker@aip.de, rdscholz@aip.de
Anatoly E. Piskunov
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 48 Pyatnitskaya St. 119017, Moscow, Russia email: piskunov@inasan.rssi.ru
Nina V. Kharchenko
Affiliation:
Main Astronomical Observatory, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 27 Akademika Zabolotnoho St., 03680 Kyiv, Ukraine email: nkhar@mao.kiev.ua
Siegfried Röser
Affiliation:
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Mönchhofstr. 12 – 14, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany email: roeser@ari.uni-heidelberg.de, elena@ari.uni-heidelberg.de
Elena Schilbach
Affiliation:
Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Mönchhofstr. 12 – 14, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany email: roeser@ari.uni-heidelberg.de, elena@ari.uni-heidelberg.de
Ralf-Dieter Scholz
Affiliation:
Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam, Germany email: hzinnecker@aip.de, rdscholz@aip.de
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Abstract

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We have derived a complete magnitude-limited sample of 440 Galactic open clusters in the solar neighborhood, with integrated V-magnitude brighter than 8 mag. This sample can be used to infer the present-day luminosity and mass functions of open clusters up to a given age; it can even be used to construct the initial mass and luminosity function (IMF, ILF) of clusters (defined as visible clusters with age 4 – 8 Myr). The high-mass end of the cluster IMF is a power-law with a slope of −2 or slightly shallower (−1.7) while the luminous cluster ILF has a power-slope of −1, in agreement with what is found for extragalactic clusters. Both distribution functions show a turnover, starting at 300 M⊙ and integrated magnitude −3 mag, respectively. The overall birthrate of clusters is 0.4 clusters per kpc2 and per Myr. The average present-day cluster mass is 700 M⊙, while the average initial cluster mass is 4500 M⊙. The difference of these two average masses indicates the high infant mortality and/or weight loss of Galactic open clusters (due to dynamical evolution).

Keywords

open clustersastrometryphotometryluminosity functionmass function
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 4 , Issue S254: The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context , June 2008 , pp. 221 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2009

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