2016/08/29 by Jeremy J. Webb, Enrico Vesperini · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Cluster (spacecraft) #Globular cluster #Mass segregation #Physics #Star cluster #Star formation #Stars #Stellar evolution #Stellar mass #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stw2186
13 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 2016/08/29 · openalex publication_date 2016/09/01 · arxiv updated 2016/09/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A number of recent observational studies of Galactic globular clusters have measured the variation in the slope of a cluster's stellar mass function α with clustercentric distance r. In order to gather a deeper understanding of the information contained in such observations, we have explored the evolution of α(r) for star clusters with a variety of initial conditions using a large suite of N-body simulations. We have specifically studied how the time evolution of α(r) is affected by initial size, mass, binary fraction, primordial mass segregation, black hole retention, an external tidal field, and the initial mass function itself. Previous studies have shown that the evolution of αG is closely related to the amount of mass-loss suffered by a cluster. Hence, for each simulation, we have also followed the evolution of the slope of the cluster's global stellar mass function, αG, and have shown that clusters follow a well-defined track in the αG–dα(r)/d(ln(r/rm)) plane. The location of a cluster on the αG–dα(r)/d(ln(r/rm)) plane can therefore constrain its dynamical history and, in particular, constrain possible variations in the stellar initial mass function. The αG–dα(r)/d(ln(r/rm)) plane thus serves as a key tool for fully exploiting the information contained in wide-field studies of cluster stellar mass functions.