Bibcode
Paust, Nathaniel E. Q.; Reid, I. Neill; Piotto, Giampaolo; Aparicio, A.; Anderson, Jay; Sarajedini, Ata; Bedin, Luigi R.; Chaboyer, Brian; Dotter, Aaron; Hempel, Maren; Majewski, Steven; Marín-Franch, A.; Milone, Antonino; Rosenberg, A.; Siegel, Michael
Bibliographical reference
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 139, Issue 2, pp. 476-491 (2010).
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2
2010
Citations
90
Refereed citations
87
Description
We have used observations obtained as part of the Hubble Space
Telescope/ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters to construct global
present-day mass functions for 17 globular clusters utilizing multi-mass
King models to extrapolate from our observations to the global cluster
behavior. The global present-day mass functions for these clusters are
well matched by power laws from the turnoff, ≈0.8 M sun,
to 0.2-0.3 M sun on the lower main sequence. The slopes of
those power-law fits, α, have been correlated with an extensive
set of intrinsic and extrinsic cluster properties to investigate which
parameters may influence the form of the present-day mass function. We
do not confirm previous suggestions of correlations between α and
either metallicity or Galactic location. However, we do find a strong
statistical correlation with the related parameters central surface
brightness, μ V , and inferred central density,
ρ0. The correlation is such that clusters with denser
cores (stronger binding energy) tend to have steeper mass functions (a
higher proportion of low-mass stars), suggesting that dynamical
evolution due to external interactions may have played a key role in
determining α. Thus, the present-day mass function may owe more to
nurture than to nature. Detailed modeling of external dynamical effects
is therefore a requisite for determining the initial mass function for
Galactic globular clusters.
Related projects
Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
The general aim of the project is to research the structure, evolutionary history and formation of galaxies through the study of their resolved stellar populations, both from photometry and spectroscopy. The group research concentrates in the most nearby objects, namely the Local Group galaxies including the Milky Way and M33 under the hypothesis
Martín
López Corredoira