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This contribution addresses the question of whether the initial cluster massfunction (ICMF) has a fundamental limit (or truncation) at high masses. Theshape of the ICMF at high masses can be studied using the most massive young(<10 Myr) clusters, however this has proven difficult due to low-numberstatistics. In this contribution we use an alternative method based on theluminosities of the brightest clusters, combined with their ages. If atruncation is present, a generic prediction (nearly independent of the clusterdisruption law adopted) is that the median age of bright clusters should beyounger than that of fainter clusters. In the case of an non-truncated ICMF,the median age should be independent of cluster luminosity. Here, we presentoptical spectroscopy of twelve young stellar clusters in the face-on spiralgalaxy NGC 2997. The spectra are used to estimate the age of each cluster, andthe brightness of the clusters is taken from the literature. The observationsare compared with the model expectations of Larsen (2009) for various ICMFforms and both mass dependent and mass independent cluster disruption. Whilethere exists some degeneracy between the truncation mass and the amount of massindependent disruption, the observations favour a truncated ICMF. For low ormodest amounts of mass independent disruption, a truncation mass of 5-6*10^5Msun is estimated, consistent with previous determinations. Additionally, weinvestigate possible truncations in the ICMF in the spiral galaxy M83, theinteracting Antennae galaxies, and the collection of spiral and dwarf galaxiespresent in Larsen (2009) based on photometric catalogues taken from theliterature, and find that all catalogues are consistent with having a(environmentally dependent) truncation in the cluster mass functions.

Spectroscopic Constraints on the Form of the Stellar Cluster Mass Function