Properties of the cluster population of NGC 1566 and their implications

Katherine Hollyhead; Angela Adamo; Nate Bastian; Mark Gieles; Jenna Ryon

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw1142

paper

Properties of the cluster population of NGC 1566 and their implications

arXiv:1605.03451 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stw1142

Abstract

We present results of a photometric study into the cluster population of NGC 1566, a nearby grand design spiral galaxy, sampled out to a Galactocentric radius of $\approx 5.5$ kpc. The shape of the mass-limited age distribution shows negligible variation with radial distance from the centre of the galaxy, and demonstrates three separate sections, with a steep beginning, flat middle and steep end. The luminosity function can be approximated by a power law at lower luminosities with evidence of a truncation at higher luminosity. The power law section of the luminosity function of the galaxy is best fitted by an index $\approx - 2$ , in agreement with other studies, and is found to agree with a model luminosity function, which uses an underlying Schechter mass function. The recovered power law slope of the mass distribution shows a slight steepening as a function of galactocentric distance, but this is within error estimates. It also displays a possible truncation at the high mass end. Additionally, the cluster formation efficiency ( $Γ$ ) and the specific U-band luminosity of clusters ( $T_{L} (U)$ ) are calculated for NGC 1566 and are consistent with values for similar galaxies. A difference in NGC 1566, however, is that the fairly high star formation rate is in contrast with a low $Σ_{S F R}$ and $Γ$ , indicating that $Γ$ can only be said to depend strongly on $Σ_{S F R}$ , not the star formation rate.

18 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Properties of the cluster population of NGC 1566 and their implications

Abstract

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