On the origin of the Schechter-like mass function of young star clusters in disk galaxies

Abstract

The mass function of freshly formed star clusters is empirically often described as a power law. However the cluster mass function of populations of young clusters over the scale of a galaxy has been found to be described by a Schechter-function. Here we address this apparent discrepancy. We assume that in an annulus of an isolated self- regulated radially-exponential axially-symmetric disk galaxy, the local mass function of very young (embedded) clusters is a power law with an upper mass limit which depends on the local star formation rate density. Radial integration of this mass function yields a galaxy-wide embedded cluster mass function. This integrated embedded cluster mass function has a Schechter-type form, which results from the addition of many low mass clusters forming at all galactocentric distances and rarer massive clusters only forming close to the center of the galaxy.

11 pages 11 figures 1 table to be published in MNRAS

References in corpus (6)

• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XII. The Luminosity Function of Globular Clusters in Early Type Galaxies
• The mass function of young star clusters in spiral galaxies
• Geometrically Derived Timescales for Star Formation in Spiral Galaxies
• The Radio Continuum-Star Formation Rate Relation in WSRT SINGS Galaxies
• The Origin of the Gaussian Initial Mass Function of Old Globular Cluster Systems
• The chemical evolution of galaxies with a variable IGIMF

Cited by in corpus (6)

• The optimally-sampled galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function - Observational tests and the publicly available GalIMF code
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury: Triangulum Extended Region (PHATTER). III. The Mass Function of Young Star Clusters in M33
• The effect of the environment-dependent stellar initial mass function on the photometric properties of star-forming galaxies
• The galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function in the presence of cluster-to-cluster IMF variations
• The initial mass function of stars and the star-formation rates of galaxies
• Downsizing revised: Star formation timescales for elliptical galaxies with an environment-dependent IMF and number of SNIa