Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
STEPHEN PHILLIPS hostreviews.co.uk / UNSPLASH

The life of star clusters, from birth to dissolution: a new approach

Bekdaulet Shukirgaliyev , ARI

We study the long-term evolution of star clusters in the Galactic disk, starting from their birth in gaseous clumps until their complete dissolution in the tidal field. To do so, we combine the semi-analytic ''local-density-driven'' cluster formation model of Parmentier & Pfalzner (2013) with direct N-body simulations of clusters following instantaneous gas expulsion. We look at the relation between cluster dissolution time and cluster initial mass. The model clusters formed with a high star formation efficiency (SFE -- i.e. gas mass fraction converted into stars) follow a tight mass-dependent relation, in agreement with previous theoretical studies. However, the low-SFE models present a large scatter in both the initial mass and the dissolution time, and present a shallower mass-dependent relation than high-SFE clusters. Combining both populations of clusters, i.e. high- and low-SFE ones, with domination of the latter, yields a cluster dissolution time for the solar neighborhood in agreement with that inferred from observations, without any additional destructive processes such as giant molecular cloud encounters. An apparent mass-independent dissolution relation may emerge for our low-SFE clusters when we neglect low-mass clusters (as expected for extra-galactic observations), although more simulations are needed to investigate this aspect.

ARI Institute Colloquium
26 Jul 2018, 11:15
ARI Moenchhofstrasse 12-14, Seminarraum 1

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