2013/01/17 by M. Mapelli, A. Bressan · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stt119
9 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, MNRAS, accepted
arxiv created 2013/01/17 · arxiv updated 2015/06/12
We discuss the results of N-body simulations of intermediate-mass young star clusters (SCs) with three different metallicities (Z=0.01, 0.1 and 1 Zsun), including metallicity-dependent stellar evolution recipes and metallicity-dependent prescriptions for stellar winds and remnant formation. The initial half-mass relaxation time of the simulated young SCs (~10 Myr) is comparable to the lifetime of massive stars. We show that mass-loss by stellar winds influences the reversal of core collapse and the expansion of the half-mass radius. In particular, the post-collapse re-expansion of the core is weaker for metal-poor SCs than for metal-rich SCs, because the former lose less mass (through stellar winds) than the latter. As a consequence, the half-mass radius expands faster in metal-poor SCs. The difference in the half-light radius between metal-poor SCs and metal-rich SCs is (up to a factor of two) larger than the difference in the half-mass radius.