Spatial distribution of stellar mass in the Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters

Abstract

The stellar mass distributions have been studied in halo regions (radius ranging from ~19 to 94 arcsec) of 5 young Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters. Effects of mass segregation have been observed in only NGC 1711. A comparison of cluster age with its relaxation time indicates that the observed mass segregation could have taken place at the time of star formation. Absence of mass segregation in most of the clusters may indicate that there is generally no spatial preference for the formation of massive stars. Most of the clusters have similar spatial density profiles which follow a power law with indices ≈3.5. This may indicate slow, but efficient process of star formation in the young star clusters of the Large Magellanic Cloud.