2009/10/26 by J. M. Diederik Kruijssen, Simon Portegies Zwart, Kruijssen, J. M. Diederik +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0910.4964
4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of "Galaxy Wars: Stellar Populations and Star Formation in Interacting Galaxies" (Tennessee, July 2009)
arxiv created 2009/10/26 · openalex publication_date 2009/10/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The relation between the globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF, dN/dlogL) and globular cluster mass function (GCMF, dN/dlogM) is considered. Due to low-mass star depletion, dissolving GCs have mass-to-light (M/L) ratios that are lower than expected from their metallicities. This has been shown to lead to an M/L ratio that increases with GC mass and luminosity. We model the GCLF and GCMF and show that the power law slopes inherently differ (1.0 versus 0.7, respectively) when accounting for the variability of M/L. The observed GCLF is found to be consistent with a Schechter-type initial cluster mass function and a mass-dependent mass-loss rate.