SCYON Abstract

Received on May 16 2001

Structure and Mass function of five intermediate/old open clusters

Authors	Alok K. Durgapal, Anil K. Pandey
Affiliation	State Observatory, Manora Peak, Naini Tal - 263 129, Uttaranchal, India
Submitted to	Astronomy & Astrophysics
Contact	alok@upso.ernet.in
URL
Links	Berkeley 20 \| Berkeley 64 \| Berkeley 69 \| King 5 \| King 7

Abstract

The UBVRI data of five northern open star clusters are used to study the mass function (MF), structure and dynamical state of these clusters. The clusters under discussion have ages ranging from ~0.6 to 5 Gyr. A comparison of the density profiles indicates that the evolution of the core of these clusters is almost the same, whereas the corona of the clusters probably affected by the external environment and dynamical evolution. For the entire cluster region, the slope of the MF of three clusters (Be 64, Be 69 and King 5) has a value that agrees within error with the Salpeter value, whereas King~7 and Be 20 show a steeper (Gamma = -2.02 ± 0.24) and almost a flat MF respectively. We find that the slope of the MF of two clusters (King 5 and King 7) changes significantly from the inner region to the outer region, becoming steeper at larger radii. The dynamical relaxation time of the clusters under discussion is less than the age of the clusters, which indicates that all of these clusters are dynamically relaxed. Thus the observed mass segregation in three clusters can be attributed to the dynamical evolution of the clusters. The ratio of the clusters' present radius to the limiting radius (determined from the relation given by King 1962) can be representated by a law of exponent.