Distribution of stellar mass in young star clusters of our Galaxy and nearby galaxies

Abstract

Stellar mass distribution in young star clusters of our Galaxy, the Magellanic Clouds and the nearby local groups of galaxies has been used to investigate the universality of initial mass function and presence of mass segregation in these systems. There is no obvious dependence of the MF slope on either galactocentric distance or age of the galactic open star clusters. A comparison of initial mass function slopes that have been measured in star clusters and associations of our and nearby galaxies indicates that the slope is independent of the spatial concentration of the star formed, galactic characteristics including metallicity, and at least down to 0.85 M(odot), the stellar mass range. Effects of mass segregation have been observed in good number of young stellar groups of our Galaxy and Magellanic Clouds. As their ages are much smaller than their dynamical evolution times, star formation processes seems to be responsible for the observed mass segregation in them.