On the mass of the Galactic star cluster NGC 4337
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Archivos
Fecha
2017-06
Profesor/a Guía
Facultad/escuela
Idioma
en
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Oxford University Press
Nombre de Curso
Licencia CC
CC BY 4.0 DEED
Atribución 4.0 Internacional
Licencia CC
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es
Resumen
Only a small number of Galactic open clusters survive for longer than a few hundred million years. Longer lifetimes are routinely explained in term of larger initial masses, particularly quiet orbits and off-plane birthplaces. We derive in this work the actual mass of NGC 4337, one of the few open clusters in theMilkyWay inner disc that has managed to survive for about 1.5 Gyr.We derive its mass in two different ways. First, we exploit an unpublished photometric data set in the UBVI passbands to estimate - using star counts - the cluster luminosity profile, luminosity and mass function and hence its actual mass from both the luminosity profile and mass function. This data set is also used to infer crucial cluster parameters, such as the cluster half-mass radius and distance. Secondly, we make use of a large survey of cluster star radial velocities to derive dynamical estimates for the cluster mass. Using the assumption of virial equilibrium and neglecting the external gravitational field leads to values for the mass significantly larger than those obtained by means of the observed density distribution or with the mass function, but still marginally compatible with the inferred values of invisible mass in the form of both low-mass stars and remnants of high-mass stars in the cluster. Finally, we derive the cluster initial mass by computing the mass loss experienced by the cluster during its lifetime and adopting the various estimates of the actual mass. © 2017 The Authors.
Notas
Indexación: Scopus
Palabras clave
Individual, NGC 4337, Open clusters and associations, Open clusters and associations: general
Citación
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Volume 467, Issue 3, Pages 1 - 12June 2017
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stx177