The spin, expansion and contraction of open star clusters

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Hauptverfasser: Jadhav, Vikrant V., Kroupa, Pavel, Wu, Wenjie, Pflamm-Altenburg, Jan, Thies, Ingo
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Jadhav, Vikrant V.
Kroupa, Pavel
Wu, Wenjie
Pflamm-Altenburg, Jan
Thies, Ingo
author_facet Jadhav, Vikrant V.
Kroupa, Pavel
Wu, Wenjie
Pflamm-Altenburg, Jan
Thies, Ingo
contents Empirical constraints on the internal dynamics of open clusters are important for understanding their evolution and evaporation. High precision astrometry from Gaia DR3 are thus useful to observe aspects of the cluster dynamics. This work aims to identify dynamically peculiar clusters such as spinning and expanding clusters. We also quantify the spin frequency and expansion rate and compare them with $N$-body models to identify the origins of the peculiarities. We used the latest Gaia DR3 and archival spectroscopic surveys to analyse the radial velocities and proper motions of the cluster members in 1379 open clusters. A systematic analysis of synthetic clusters is performed to demonstrate the observability of the cluster spin along with effects of observational uncertainties. $N$-body simulations were used to understand the evolution of cluster spin and expansion for initially non-rotating clusters. We identified spin signatures in 10 clusters (and 16 candidates). Additionally, we detected expansion in 18 clusters and contraction in 3 clusters. The expansion rate is compatible with previous theoretical estimates based on expulsion of residual gas. The orientation of the spin axis is independent of the orbital angular momentum. The spin frequencies are much larger than what is expected from simulated initially non-rotating clusters. This indicates that >1% of the clusters are born rotating and/or they have undergone strong interactions. Higher precision observations are required to increase the sample of such dynamically peculiar clusters and to characterise them.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_05327
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The spin, expansion and contraction of open star clusters
Jadhav, Vikrant V.
Kroupa, Pavel
Wu, Wenjie
Pflamm-Altenburg, Jan
Thies, Ingo
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Empirical constraints on the internal dynamics of open clusters are important for understanding their evolution and evaporation. High precision astrometry from Gaia DR3 are thus useful to observe aspects of the cluster dynamics. This work aims to identify dynamically peculiar clusters such as spinning and expanding clusters. We also quantify the spin frequency and expansion rate and compare them with $N$-body models to identify the origins of the peculiarities. We used the latest Gaia DR3 and archival spectroscopic surveys to analyse the radial velocities and proper motions of the cluster members in 1379 open clusters. A systematic analysis of synthetic clusters is performed to demonstrate the observability of the cluster spin along with effects of observational uncertainties. $N$-body simulations were used to understand the evolution of cluster spin and expansion for initially non-rotating clusters. We identified spin signatures in 10 clusters (and 16 candidates). Additionally, we detected expansion in 18 clusters and contraction in 3 clusters. The expansion rate is compatible with previous theoretical estimates based on expulsion of residual gas. The orientation of the spin axis is independent of the orbital angular momentum. The spin frequencies are much larger than what is expected from simulated initially non-rotating clusters. This indicates that >1% of the clusters are born rotating and/or they have undergone strong interactions. Higher precision observations are required to increase the sample of such dynamically peculiar clusters and to characterise them.
title The spin, expansion and contraction of open star clusters
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.05327