The bound mass of Dehnen models with centrally peaked star formation efficiency

TL;DR

This study investigates how the density profile slopes of star clusters, modeled by Dehnen profiles, influence their survivability after gas expulsion, revealing that shallower outer slopes enhance cluster survival.

Contribution

It introduces a comparison of Dehnen and Plummer models in low-SFE cluster evolution, highlighting the impact of density profile slopes on survivability after gas expulsion.

Findings

Dehnen clusters survive better than Plummer clusters at low SFE.

Shallower outer density slopes improve cluster survivability.

Steeper inner slopes (cusps) increase bound mass retention.

Abstract

Understanding the formation of star clusters with low star-formation efficiency (SFE) is very important to know about the star-formation history. In N-body models of star cluster evolution after gas expulsion, the Plummer model with outer power law density profile has been used massively. We study the impact of the density profile slopes on the survivability of the low-SFE star clusters after instantaneous gas expulsion. We compare cases when stellar cluster has Plummer profile and Dehnen profiles with cusp of different slopes at the time of formation. We determine the corresponding density profile of the residual gas for a given global SFE, assuming that our model clusters formed with a constant efficiency per free-fall time and hence have shallower density profile of gas than that of stars. We perform direct $N$-body simulations of evolution of clusters initially in virial equilibrium within gas potential after gas removal. We find that the violent relaxation lasts no longer than 20~Myr independently of the density profile power law slopes. Dehnen model clusters survive after violent relaxation with significantly lower SFEs when the global SFE measured within the Jacobi radius or within a half-mass radius. Dehnen $\gamma=0$ model clusters show similar final bound fraction with the Plummer model clusters if global SFE is measured within 10 scale radii. The final bound fraction increases with $\gamma$ values for a given global SFE. We conclude that Dehnen clusters better resist the consequences of the violent relaxation followed the instantaneous gas expulsion than the Plummer clusters. Thus the shallower the outer density slope of the low-SFE clusters, the better for their survivability after gas expulsion. Among Dehnen clusters we find that the steeper the inner slope (cusp) the higher the bound mass fraction is retained after violent relaxation for a given global SFE.