The Formation of Stellar Clusters

Abstract

We review recent work that investigates the formation of stellar clusters, ranging in scale from globular clusters through open clusters to the small scale aggregates of stars observed in T associations. In all cases, recent advances in understanding have been achieved through the use of state of the art stellar dynamical and gas dynamical calculations, combined with the possibility of intercomparison with an increasingly large dataset on young clusters. Among the subjects that are highlighted are the frequency of cluster-mode star formation, the possible relationship between cluster density and the highest stellar mass, subclustering and the dynamical interactions that occur in compact aggregates, such as binary star formation. We also consider how the spectrum of stellar masses may be shaped by the process of competitive accretion in dense environments and how cluster properties, such as mass segregation and cluster morphology, can be used in conjunction with numerical simulations to investigate the initial conditions for cluster formation. Lastly, we contrast bottom-up and top-down scenarios for cluster formation and discuss their applicability to the formation of clusters on a range of scales.

Problem with Figure 1 fixed. To appear in the conference proceedings for Protostars and Planets IV. 31 pages, incl. 3 figures

References in corpus (9)

• The Luminosity Function of Young Star Clusters In "The Antennae" Galaxies (NGC 4038/4039)
• On the Formation of Massive Stars
• Inverse Dynamical Population Synthesis and Star Formation
• Residual gas expulsion from young globular clusters
• Interpreting the Mean Surface Density of Companions in Star-Forming Regions
• The initial conditions of young globular clusters in the LMC
• The ejection of T Tauri stars from molecular clouds and the fate of circumstellar discs
• Evolution of mass segregation in open clusters: some observational evidences
• New proper motions of pre-main sequence stars in Taurus-Auriga

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Clusterix 2.0. A Virtual Observatory tool to estimate cluster membership probability
• Dynamical dust traps in misaligned circumbinary discs: analytical theory and numerical simulations