The role of cluster age on the onset of multiple populations in stellar clusters

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the age of star clusters influences the presence of multiple stellar populations and chemical variations, comparing young clusters to ancient globular clusters to understand the origins of chemical anomalies.

Contribution

The study provides new observational insights into the occurrence of chemical variations in younger star clusters, expanding understanding beyond traditional ancient globular clusters.

Findings

Younger clusters also show chemical variations.

Age influences the onset of multiple populations.

Differences observed between young and old clusters.

Abstract

The origin of the chemical anomalies in star clusters is still an open question, although much effort has been employed both from a theoretical and observational point of view. The exploration of whether such multiple stellar populations are found based on certain properties of clusters has represented a compelling line of investigation so far. Here I report an overview of the results obtained from our latest surveys aimed at characterising the phenomenon of chemical variations in star clusters that are much younger with respect to the ancient globular clusters. The fundamental question we are asking is whether these abundance patterns are only restricted to the old massive clusters; and if not, is there a difference between young and old objects?