Year: 2006
Type: preprint
Abstract: Star clusters are observed to form in a highly compact state and with low star-formation efficiencies. If the residual gas is expelled on a dynamical time the clusters disrupt thereby (i) feeding a hot kinematical stellar component into their host-galaxy's field population, and (ii) if the gas-evacuation time-scale depends on cluster mass, then a power-law embedded-cluster mass function transforms within ten to a few dozen Myr to a mass function with a turnover near 10^5 M_sun, thereby possibly explaining this universal empirical feature.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Kroupa, Pavel
Institution: University of Bonn
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2996493508