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We present a simple analytical description of the disruption of star clustersin a tidal field, which agrees excellently with detailed N-body simulations.The analytic expression can be used to predict the mass and age histograms ofsurviving clusters for any cluster initial mass function and any clusterformation history. The method is applied to open clusters in the solarneighbourhood, based on the new cluster sample of Kharchenko et al. From acomparison between the observed and predicted age distributions in the agerange between 10 Myr to 3 Gyr we find the following results: (1) The disruptiontime of a 10^4 M_sun cluster in the solar neighbourhood is about 1.3+/-0.5 Gyr.This is a factor 5 shorter than derived from N-body simulations of clusters inthe tidal field of the galaxy. (2) The present starformation rate in boundclusters within 600 pc from the Sun is 5.9+/-0.8 * 10^2 M_sun / Myr, whichcorresponds to a surface star formation rate in bound clusters of 5.2+/-0.710^(-10) M_sun/yr/pc^2. (3) The age distribution of open clusters shows a bumpbetween 0.26 and 0.6 Gyr when the cluster formation rate was 2.5 times higherthan before and after. (4) The present star formation rate in bound clusters ishalf as small as that derived from the study of embedded clusters. Thedifference suggests that half of the clusters in the solar neighbourhood becomeunbound within 10 Myr. (5) The most massive clusters within 600 pc had aninitial mass of 3*10^4 M_sun. This is in agreement with the statisticallyexpected value based on a cluster initial mass function with a slope of -2,even if the physical upper mass limit is as high as 10^6 M_sun.

An analytical description of the disruption of star clusters in tidal fields with an application to Galactic open clusters