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Investigation of the initial mass spectrum of open star clusters
Author(s) -
Stecklum B.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.2113060202
Subject(s) - open cluster , astrophysics , physics , mass spectrum , spectral line , stars , star cluster , cluster (spacecraft) , star (game theory) , exponential function , power law , astronomy , statistics , mathematics , mass spectrometry , mathematical analysis , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language
The mass spectra of 228 open star clusters were derived by comparison of colour‐magnitude diagrams with evolutionary tracks. The application to binary stars showed the reliability of the mass determination. The derived mass spectra were fitted by power laws as well as exponential laws. It could be shown that both approximate the mass spectra of open star clusters on the same average significance level. The present investigation revealed a correlation of the slope of the mass spectra with the cluster age, whereas a detected correlation of the slope with galactocentric distance is slight. The results suggest that the slope of the mass spectrum increases with increasing cluster age and galactocentric distance. These findings are discussed with respect to their reasons and previous results concerning open clusters and field stars.