The newly installed Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope
has been used to obtain multi-band images of the nearby spiral galaxy M83.
These new observations are the deepest and highest resolution images ever taken
of a grand-design spiral, particularly in the near ultraviolet, and allow us to
better differentiate compact star clusters from individual stars and to measure
the luminosities of even faint clusters in the U band. We find that the
luminosity function for clusters outside of the very crowded starburst nucleus
can be approximated by a power law, dN/dL \propto L^{alpha}, with alpha = -2.04
+/- 0.08, down to M_V ~ -5.5. We test the sensitivity of the luminosity
function to different selection techniques, filters, binning, and aperture
correction determinations, and find that none of these contribute significantly
to uncertainties in alpha. We estimate ages and masses for the clusters by
comparing their measured UBVI,Halpha colors with predictions from single
stellar population models. The age distribution of the clusters can be
approximated by a power-law, dN/dt propto t^{gamma}, with gamma=-0.9 +/- 0.2,
for M > few x 10^3 Msun and t < 4x10^8 yr. This indicates that clusters are
disrupted quickly, with ~80-90% disrupted each decade in age over this time.
The mass function of clusters over the same M-t range is a power law, dN/dM
propto M^{beta}, with beta=-1.94 +/- 0.16, and does not have bends or show
curvature at either high or low masses. Therefore, we do not find evidence for
a physical upper mass limit, M_C, or for the earlier disruption of lower mass
clusters when compared with higher mass clusters, i.e. mass-dependent
disruption. We briefly discuss these implications for the formation and
disruption of the clusters.Comment: 36 pages, 13 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journa
