Stellar and Substellar Mass Function of the Young Open Cluster Candidates Alessi 5 and β Monocerotis

Boudreault, S.; Caballero, J. A.
Bibliographical reference

16th Cambridge Workshop on Cool Stars, Stellar Systems, and the Sun. ASP Conference Series, Vol. 448, proceedings of a conference held August 28- September 2, 2010 at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. Edited by Christopher M. Johns-Krull, Matthew K. Browning, and Andrew A. West. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2012., p.565

Advertised on:
12
2011
Number of authors
2
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
1
Refereed citations
1
Description
Although the stellar and substellar populations have been studied in various young and old open clusters, additional studies in clusters in the the age range from 5 to 100 Myr is crucial (e.g. to give more constrains on initial mass function variation with improved statistics). Among the open cluster candidates from recent studies, two clusters are best suited for photometric survey of very-low mass stars and brown dwarfs, considering their youth and relative proximity: Alessi 5 (τ˜40 Myr, d˜400 pc) and β Monocerotis (τ˜9.1 Myr, d˜400 pc). For both clusters, we performed an optical and near-infrared photometric survey, and a virtual observatory survey. Our survey is predicted to be sensitive from the massive B main sequence stars down to brown dwarfs of 30 MJup. Here, we present and discuss preliminary results, including the mass function obtained for Alessi 5, which is surprisingly very similar to the mass function of the Hyades (τ˜600 Myr), although they are of very different ages.