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The spatial distribution of stars in open clusters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2010

Néstor Sánchez  and
Emilio J. Alfaro
Néstor Sánchez
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Adalucía–CSIC, Apdo. 3004, E-18080, Granada, Spain email: nestor@iaa.es, emilio@iaa.es
Emilio J. Alfaro
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Adalucía–CSIC, Apdo. 3004, E-18080, Granada, Spain email: nestor@iaa.es, emilio@iaa.es
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Abstract

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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 stellar distribution as either radially or fractally clustered), King-profile fitting, and the correlation dimension (Dc) for those clusters with fractal patterns. On average, clusters with fractal-like structure are younger than those exhibiting radial stellar-density profiles. There is a significant correlation between Q and the cluster age measured in crossing-time units. For fractal clusters, there is a significant correlation between fractal dimension and age. These results support the idea that stars in newly born clusters likely follow the fractal patterns of their parent molecular clouds, and eventually evolve towards more centrally concentrated structures. However, stellar clusters as old as ~ 100 Myr can exist that have not totally destroyed their fractal structure. Finally, we have found the intriguing result that the lowest fractal dimensions obtained for the open clusters seem to be considerably smaller than the average value measured in Galactic molecular cloud complexes.

Keywords

ISM: structuremethods: statisticalopen clusters and associations: generalstars: formation
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S266: Star clusters: basic galactic building blocks throughout time and space , August 2009 , pp. 524 - 527
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

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