THE STARBURST CLUSTER WESTERLUND 1: THE INITIAL MASS FUNCTION AND MASS SEGREGATION
- Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Sejong University, 98 Gunja-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-747 (Korea, Republic of)
- Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, 776 Daedeokdae-ro, Yusung-gu, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)
- Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
Westerlund 1 is the most important starburst cluster in the Galaxy due to its massive star content. We have performed BVI{sub C} and JK{sub S} photometry to investigate the initial mass function (IMF). By comparing the observed color with the spectral-type-intrinsic-color relation, we obtain the mean interstellar reddening of (E(B - V)) = 4.19 {+-} 0.23 and (E(J - K{sub S} )) = 1.70 {+-} 0.21. Due to the heavy extinction toward the cluster, the zero-age main sequence fitting method based on optical photometry proved to be inappropriate for the distance determination, while the near-infrared photometry gave a reliable distance to the cluster-3.8 kpc from the empirical relation. Using the recent theoretical stellar evolution models with rotation, the age of the cluster is estimated to be 5.0 {+-} 1.0 Myr. We derived the IMF in the massive part and obtained a fairly shallow slope of {Gamma} = -0.8 {+-} 0.1. The integration of the IMF gave a total mass for the cluster in excess of 5.0 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 4} M{sub Sun }. The IMF shows a clear radial variation indicating the presence of mass segregation. We also discuss the possible star formation history of Westerlund 1 from the presence of red supergiants and relatively low luminosity yellow hypergiants.
- OSTI ID:
- 22089684
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 145, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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