CORE
🇺🇦
make metadata, not war
Services
Services overview
Explore all CORE services
Access to raw data
API
Dataset
FastSync
Content discovery
Recommender
Discovery
OAI identifiers
OAI Resolver
Managing content
Dashboard
Bespoke contracts
Consultancy services
Support us
Support us
Membership
Sponsorship
Community governance
Advisory Board
Board of supporters
Research network
About
About us
Our mission
Team
Blog
FAQs
Contact us
research
Properties of star clusters - II. Scaleheight evolution of clusters
Authors
Anne S. M. Buckner
Bastian
+40 more
Bica
Bonatto
Bonatto
Bonatto
Bonatto
Boutloukos
Buckner
Camargo
Corradi
Davies
Dehnen
Dias
Dirk Froebrich
Drimmel
Elias
Froebrich
Froebrich
Froebrich
Gieles
Gieles
Goodwin
Gustafsson
Humphreys
Kharchenko
Lada
Lamers
Lamers
Lejeune
Marshall
Mermilliod
Peacock
Piskunov
Reed
Reed
Sanders
Schmeja
Siess
Skrutskie
Wegg
Wouterloot
Publication date
17 July 2014
Publisher
'Oxford University Press (OUP)'
Doi
Cite
View
on
arXiv
Abstract
Until now, it has been impossible to observationally measure how star cluster scaleheight evolves beyond 1 Gyr as only small samples have been available. Here, we establish a novel method to determine the scaleheight of a cluster sample using modelled distributions and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests. This allows us to determine the scaleheight with a 25 per cent accuracy for samples of 38 clusters or more. We apply our method to investigate the temporal evolution of cluster scaleheight, using homogeneously selected sub-samples of Kharchenko et al. (MWSC), Dias et al. (DAML02), WEBDA, and Froebrich et al. (FSR). We identify a linear relationship between scaleheight and log(age/yr) of clusters, considerably different from field stars. The scaleheight increases from about 40 pc at 1Myr to 75 pc at 1 Gyr,most likely due to internal evolution and external scattering events. After 1 Gyr, there is amarked change of the behaviour, with the scaleheight linearly increasing with log(age/yr) to about 550 pc at 3.5 Gyr. The most likely interpretation is that the surviving clusters are only observable because they have been scattered away from the mid-plane in their past. A detailed understanding of this observational evidence can only be achieved with numerical simulations of the evolution of cluster samples in the Galactic disc. Furthermore, we find a weak trend of an age-independent increase in scaleheight with Galactocentric distance. There are no significant temporal or spatial variations of the cluster distribution zero-point. We determine the Sun's vertical displacement from the Galactic plane as Z± = 18.5 ± 1.2 pc. ©2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
Similar works
Full text
Open in the Core reader
Download PDF
Available Versions
Crossref
See this paper in CORE
Go to the repository landing page
Download from data provider
info:doi/10.1093%2Fmnras%2Fstu...
Last time updated on 18/02/2019
Kent Academic Repository
See this paper in CORE
Go to the repository landing page
Download from data provider
oai:kar.kent.ac.uk:49548
Last time updated on 05/04/2016