Journal article
A dynamical origin for early mass segregation in young star clusters
The Astrophysical journal, v 655(1), pp L45-L48
20 Jan 2007
Abstract
Some young star clusters show a degree of mass segregation that is inconsistent with the effects of standard two-body relaxation from an initially unsegregated system without substructure, in virial equilibrium, and it is unclear whether current cluster formation models can account for this degree of initial segregation in clusters of significant mass. In this Letter we demonstrate that mergers of small clumps that are initially mass segregated, or in which mass segregation can be produced by two-body relaxation before they merge, generically lead to larger systems that inherit the progenitor clumps' segregation. We conclude that clusters formed in this way are naturally mass segregated, accounting for the anomalous observations and suggesting that this process of prompt mass segregation due to initial clumping should be taken into account in models of cluster formation and dynamics.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- A dynamical origin for early mass segregation in young star clusters
- Creators
- Stephen L. W. McMillanEnrico Vesperini - Drexel UniversitySimon Portegies Zwart
- Publication Details
- The Astrophysical journal, v 655(1), pp L45-L48
- Publisher
- Iop Publishing Ltd
- Number of pages
- 4
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Physics
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000243725500012
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-33846885221
- Other Identifier
- 991019167715704721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Astronomy & Astrophysics