Low-mass Stellar and Substellar Content of the Young Cluster Berkeley 59

Abstract

We present a multiwavelength analysis of the young star cluster Berkeley 59, based on Gaia data and deep IR observations with the 3.58 m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and Spitzer space telescope. The mean proper motion of the cluster is found to be μ _α cos δ ∼ −0.63 mas yr ^−1 and μ _δ ∼ −1.83 mas yr ^−1 , and the kinematic distance of the cluster, ∼1 kpc, is in agreement with previous photometric studies. The present data are the deepest available near-IR observations for the cluster so far and reach below 0.03 M _⊙ . The mass function of the cluster region is calculated using the statistically cleaned color–magnitude diagram and is similar to the Salpeter value for the member stars above 0.4 M _⊙ . In contrast, the slope becomes shallower (Γ ∼ 0.01 ± 0.18) in the mass range 0.04–0.4 M _⊙ , comparable to other nearby clusters. The spatial distribution of young brown dwarfs (BDs) and stellar candidates shows a nonhomogeneous distribution. This suggests that the radiation feedback from massive stars may be a prominent factor contributing to the BD population in the cluster Berkeley 59. We also estimated the star-to-BD ratio for the cluster, which is found to be ∼3.6. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test shows that the stellar and BD populations significantly differ, and stellar candidates are nearer the cluster center compared to the BDs, suggesting mass segregation in the cluster toward the substellar mass regime.

Keywords

• Star forming regions
• Young star clusters
• Low mass stars
• H II regions