2008/11/30 by J. Ascenso, Joana Ascenso, J. Alves +1 · 68 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Artificial intelligence #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Cluster (spacecraft) #Completeness (order theory) #Computer science #Galaxy #Mass distribution #Mass segregation #Mathematics #Observational study #Physics #Rendering (computer graphics) #Sample (material) #Star cluster #Statistics #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200809886
published in Astronomy and Astrophysics 495(1), 147-155 (EDP Sciences) · 10 pages, 12 figures, typos corrected. Download a high-resolution version at http://www.astro.up.pt/~jascenso/mseg_v2.pdf (1 MB)
arxiv created 2008/12/04 · openalex publication_date 2009/01/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
<i>Aims. <i/>We investigate the validity of the mass segregation indicators commonly used in analysing young stellar clusters.<i>Methods. <i/>We simulate observations by constructing synthetic seeing-limited images of a 1000 massive clusters (10<sup>4<sup/> ) with a standard IMF and a King-density distribution function.<i>Results. <i/>We find that commonly used indicators are highly sensitive to sample incompleteness in observational data and that radial completeness determinations do not provide satisfactory corrections, rendering the studies of radial properties highly uncertain. On the other hand, we find that, under certain conditions, the global completeness can be estimated accurately, allowing for the correction of the global luminosity and mass functions of the cluster.<i>Conclusions. <i/>We argue that there is currently no observational evidence of mass segregation in young compact clusters since there is no robust way to differentiate between true mass segregation and sample incompleteness effects. Caution should then be exercised when interpreting results from observations as evidence of mass segregation.