The Fate of Discs around Massive Stars in Young Clusters

Abstract

AIMS: The aim of this work is to understand whether there is a difference in the dispersion of discs around stars in high-density young stellar clusters like the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) according to the mass of the star. METHODS: Two types of simulations were combined -- N-body simulations of the dynamics of the stars in the ONC and mass loss results from simulations of star-disc encounters, where the disc mass loss of all stars is determined as a function of time. RESULTS: We find that in the Trapezium, the discs around high-mass stars are dispersed much more quickly and to a larger degree by their gravitational interaction than for intermediate-mass stars. This is consistent with the very recent observations of IC 348, where a higher disc frequency was found around solar mass stars than for more massive stars, suggesting that this might be a general trend in large young stellar clusters.

5 pages, 5 figures, accepted by A&A

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• Gravitational Instabilities induced by Cluster Environment? - The encounter-induced angular momentum transfer in discs
• Binary Capture Rates for Massive Protostars
• Quasi-binarity of massive stars in young dense clusters - the case of the ONC
• Cluster-assisted accretion for massive stars