On the structure of Small Magellanic Cloud star clusters

TL;DR

This study investigates the structural and dynamical properties of star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud, revealing that cluster sizes are unaffected by tidal effects, but eccentricity and mass relate to their spatial distribution.

Contribution

It introduces a 3D geometric model of the SMC to accurately analyze star cluster properties and their relation to the galaxy's structure, highlighting differential effects based on cluster characteristics.

Findings

Cluster sizes are not significantly affected by tidal effects.

High-eccentricity clusters are mostly found closer to the galaxy center.

More massive, older clusters are located in the outer regions with less flattening.

Abstract

It has been recently shown from observational data sets the variation of structural parameters and internal dynamical evolution of star clusters in the Milky Way and in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), caused by the different gravitational field strengths that they experience. We report here some hints for such a differential tidal effects in structural parameters of star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), which is nearly 10 times less massive than the LMC. A key contribution to this study is the consideration of the SMC as a triaxial spheroid, from which we estimate the deprojected distances to the SMC center of the statistically significant sample of star clusters analyzed. By adopting a 3D geometry of the SMC, we avoid the spurious effects caused by considering that a star cluster observed along the line-of-sight is close to the galaxy center. When inspecting the relationships between the star cluster sizes (represented by the 90% light radii), their eccentricities, masses and ages with the deprojected distances, we find: (i) the star cluster sizes are not visibly affected by tidal effects, because relatively small and large objects are spread through the SMC body. (ii) Star clusters with large eccentricities (> 0.4) are preferentially found located at deprojected distances smaller than $\sim$ 7-8 kpc, although many star clusters with smaller eccentricities are also found occupying a similar volume. (iii) Star clusters more massive than log(M /Mo) $\sim$ 4.0 are among the oldest star clusters, generally placed in the outermost SMC region and with a relative small level of flattening. These findings contrast with the more elongated, generally younger, less massive and innermost star clusters.