Vestige of the Star Cluster Burst in M51

TL;DR

This study analyzes star cluster formation in M51 using HST data, revealing a significant increase in formation rate during galaxy interaction epochs, with detailed age and mass distributions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of star cluster formation history in M51, linking it to galaxy interaction events and characterizing cluster properties.

Findings

Star formation rate increased during 100-250 Myr ago.

Cluster mass function follows a power law with varying slopes.

Cluster size correlates with mass and age.

Abstract

We present a study of the star cluster formation in M51 based on the image data taken with Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) of Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We have derived the star cluster formation rate using the ages and masses of about 2,000 star clusters estimated by comparing photometric data (F336W, F435W, F555W, and F814W) with theoretical population synthesis models. The star cluster formation rate increased significantly during the period of 100 ~ 250 Myr ago. This period roughly coincides with the epoch of dynamical encounters of two galaxies, NGC 5194 and NGC 5195, expected by theoretical models. The age distribution of the star clusters also shows two peaks at about 100 Myr and 250 Myr ago. The star cluster mass ranges from 10^3 to 10^6 M_{\odot} and the mass function can be represented by a power law with an index ranging from \alpha = -2.23 \pm 0.34 for t<10 Myr to \alpha = -1.37 \pm 0.11 for t>100 Myr. The mass function of star clusters older than 10 Myr also appears to display the steepest distribution with \alpha \approx -1.50 at around 200 Myr ago, near the expected epoch of the galaxy interaction. We also confirm the correlations of cluster size increasing with cluster mass (with a best fit slope of 0.16 \pm 0.02), and with cluster age (0.14 \pm 0.03).