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| Paper: |
Characteristics of Young Stellar Clusters in the Perseus Arm |
| Volume: |
287, Galactic Star Formation Across the Stellar Mass Spectrum |
| Page: |
451 |
| Authors: |
Cruz-González, I.; Porras, A.; Salas, L. |
| Abstract: |
We present a near-IR study of 40 young stellar clusters (YSCs) located along the Perseus Arm at an average distance of 3.5 kpc. The main goal of our work was to derive and compare properties of YSCs that can lead to the understanding of their formation. Cluster parameters such as mean surface density, cluster radius and age were estimated. We developed a method to estimate cluster ages, based on a comparison between observed and theoretical luminosity function histograms in the J band. The estimated ages for clusters yield a mean value of 2.42±1.20 Myr in an interval from 1.1 to 5.5 Myr. All clusters show average extinction values greater than ∼4 magnitudes and about 20% of the YSC sample have Av > 10 mag. Individual stellar masses are used to obtain the spatial distribution of stellar masses to characterize the stellar population in each cluster. Clear mass segregation is found in 44% of the cluster sample. We discuss that star formation processes are able to produce two different types of young clusters: massive (MT > 100 M⊙) and less massive (MT < 100 M⊙). |
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