Structural Parameters of Star Clusters: Stochastic Effects

Narbutis D.; Stonkutė R.; de Meulenaer P.; Mineikis T.; Vansevičius V.

doi:10.1515/astro-2017-0175

Open Astronomy (Jun 2014)

Structural Parameters of Star Clusters: Stochastic Effects

Narbutis D.,
Stonkutė R.,
de Meulenaer P.,
Mineikis T.,
Vansevičius V.

Affiliations

Narbutis D.: Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanorių 231, Vilnius LT-02300, Lithuania
Stonkutė R.: Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanorių 231, Vilnius LT-02300, Lithuania
de Meulenaer P.: Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanorių 231, Vilnius LT-02300, Lithuania
Mineikis T.: Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanorių 231, Vilnius LT-02300, Lithuania
Vansevičius V.: Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Savanorių 231, Vilnius LT-02300, Lithuania

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/astro-2017-0175
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 23, no. 2
pp. 103 – 109

Abstract

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Stochasticity of bright stars introduces uncertainty and bias into derived structural parameters of star clusters. We have simulated a grid of cluster V-band images, observed with the Subaru Suprime-Cam, with age, mass and size representing a cluster population in the M31 galaxy and derived their structural parameters by fitting King model to the surface brightness distribution. We have found that clusters less massive than 104M⊙ show significant uncertainty in their core and tidal radii for all ages, while clusters younger than 10 Myr have their sizes systematically underestimated for all masses. This emphasizes the importance of stochastic simulations to assess the true uncertainty of structural parameters in studies of semi-resolved and unresolved clusters.

Published in Open Astronomy

ISSN: 2543-6376 (Online)
Publisher: De Gruyter
Country of publisher: Poland
LCC subjects: Science: Astronomy
Website: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/astro

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