The influence of gas expulsion and initial mass-segregation on the stellar mass-function of globular star clusters

TL;DR

This paper explains the observed correlation between star cluster concentration and stellar mass-function slope through gas expulsion and initial mass segregation, offering insights into cluster formation conditions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that residual-gas expulsion from initially mass-segregated clusters explains observed mass-function trends, linking cluster dynamics to formation parameters.

Findings

Gas expulsion explains the concentration-mass-function relation.

Unresolved binaries further enhance the effect.

Observation of parameters constrains initial cluster conditions.

Abstract

Recently de Marchi, Paresce & Pulone (2007) studied a sample of twenty globular clusters and found that all clusters with high concentrations have steep stellar mass-functions while clusters with low concentration have comparatively shallow mass-functions. No globular clusters were found with a flat mass-function and high concentration. This seems curious since more concentrated star clusters are believed to be dynamically more evolved and should have lost more low-mass stars via evaporation, which would result in a shallower mass-function in the low-mass part. We show that this effect can be explained by residual-gas expulsion from initially mass-segregated star clusters, and is enhanced further through unresolved binaries. If gas expulsion is the correct mechanism to produce the observed trend, then observation of these parameters would allow to constrain cluster starting conditions such as star formation efficiency and the time-scale of gas expulsion.