Astrometric star-cluster membership probability: application to the case of M 37 with Gaia EDR3

Abstract

In this work, starting from the well-accepted relations in literature, we introduce a new formalism to compute the astrometric membership probabilities for sources in star clusters, and we provide an application to the case of the open cluster M 37. The novelty of our approach is a refined -- and magnitude-dependent -- modelling of the parallax distribution of the field stars. We employ the here-derived list of members to estimate the cluster's mean systemic astrometric parameters, which are based on the most recent Gaia's catalog (EDR3).

8 pages, 1 table, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS on 2022, February 9. Corrected a typo in Equations 3 and 8 (September 2022)