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Astrophysical parameters of Galactic open clusters
We present a catalogue of astrophysical data for 520 Galactic openclusters. These are the clusters for which at least three most probablemembers (18 on average) could be identified in the ASCC-2.5, a catalogueof stars based on the Tycho-2 observations from the Hipparcos mission.We applied homogeneous methods and algorithms to determine angular sizesof cluster cores and coronae, heliocentric distances, mean propermotions, mean radial velocities, and ages. For the first time we derivedistances for 200 clusters, radial velocities for 94 clusters, and agesof 196 clusters. This homogeneous new parameter set is compared withearlier determinations, where we find, in particular, that the angularsizes were systematically underestimated in the literature.
| On the Galactic Disk Metallicity Distribution from Open Clusters. I. New Catalogs and Abundance Gradient
We have compiled two new open cluster catalogs. In the first one, thereare 119 objects with ages, distances, and metallicities available, whilein the second one, 144 objects have both absolute proper motion andradial velocity data, of which 45 clusters also have metallicity dataavailable. Taking advantage of the large number of objects included inour sample, we present an iron radial gradient of about -0.063+/-0.008dex kpc-1 from the first sample, which is quite consistentwith the most recent determination of the oxygen gradient from nebulaeand young stars, about -0.07 dex kpc-1. By dividing clustersinto age groups, we show that the iron gradient was steeper in the past,which is consistent with the recent result from Galactic planetarynebulae data, and also consistent with inside-out galactic diskformation scenarios. Based on the cluster sample, we also discuss themetallicity distribution, cluster kinematics, and space distribution. Adisk age-metallicity relation could be implied by those properties,although we cannot give conclusive result from the age- metallicitydiagram based on the current sample. More observations are needed formetal-poor clusters. From the second catalog, we have calculated thevelocity components in cylindrical coordinates with respect to theGalactic standard of rest for 144 open clusters. The velocitydispersions of the older clusters are larger than those of youngclusters, but they are all much smaller than that of the Galactic thickdisk stars.
| Proper Motions of Open Star Clusters and the Rotation Rate of the Galaxy
The mean proper motions of 167 Galactic open clusters withradial-velocity measurements are computed from the data of the Tycho-2catalog using kinematic and photometric cluster membership criteria. Theresulting catalog is compared to the results of other studies. The newproper motions are used to infer the Galactic rotation rate at the solarcircle, which is found to be ω0=+24.6±0.8 km s-1 kpc-1.Analysis of the dependence of the dispersion of ω0 estimates onheliocentric velocity showed that even the proper motions of clusterswith distances r>3 kpc contain enough useful information to be usedin kinematic studies demonstrating that the determination of propermotions is quite justified even for very distant clusters.
| Proper motions of open clusters based on the TYCHO2 Catalogue. II. Clusters farther than 1 kpc
We determined the mean absolute proper motion of 94 open clusterssituated farther than 1 kpc from the Sun. The results are derived fromthe stellar proper motion data given in the Tycho2 Catalogue. The meanproper motion of the clusters and membership probability of individualstars were obtained from the proper motion data by applying thestatistical method proposed by Sanders (\cite{Sanders1971}). Themeasurements made use of a large number of stars, usually several tens,for each cluster. The total number of stars investigated in the fieldsof the clusters is 4864 of which 2021 were considered members. For 55clusters, this is the first determination of the proper motion. Based onobservations of the ESA Hipparcos satellite. Tables 1 to 95 are onlyavailable in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp tocdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttps://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/388/168
| The blue to red supergiant ratio in young clusters at various metallicities
We present new determinations of the blue to red supergiant ratio (B/R)in young open clusters at various metallicities. For this purpose, weexamine the HR diagrams of 45 clusters in the Galaxy and of 4 clustersin the Magellanic Clouds. The identification of supergiants is based onspectroscopic measurements (with photometric counts to check theresults). The new counts confirm the increase of the B/R ratio when themetallicity increases with the following normalized relation:(B/R)/((B/R)sun) =~ 0.05* e3(Z)/(Zsun)}, where Zsun=0.02 and(B/R)sun is the value of B/R at Zsun which dependson the definition of B and R and on the age interval considered (e.g.for spectroscopic counts including clusters with log age between 6.8 and7.5, (B/R)sun =~ 3 when B includes O, B and A supergiants).
| Absolute proper motions of open clusters. I. Observational data
Mean proper motions and parallaxes of 205 open clusters were determinedfrom their member stars found in the Hipparcos Catalogue. 360 clusterswere searched for possible members, excluding nearby clusters withdistances D < 200 pc. Members were selected using ground basedinformation (photometry, radial velocity, proper motion, distance fromthe cluster centre) and information provided by Hipparcos (propermotion, parallax). Altogether 630 certain and 100 possible members werefound. A comparison of the Hipparcos parallaxes with photometricdistances of open clusters shows good agreement. The Hipparcos dataconfirm or reject the membership of several Cepheids in the studiedclusters. Tables 1 and 2 are only available in electronic form at theCDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or viahttps://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/Abstract.html
| On the evolutionary status of Be stars
We present a study of the incidence of Be stars in open clusters as afunction of the cluster age, using whenever possible ages determinedthrough Strömgren uvby photometry. For the first time in studies ofthis kind we have considered separately classical and Herbig Be stars.The main results can be summarized as follows: Clusters associated toemitting nebulosities and undergoing stellar formation are rich inemission line objects, which most likely are all pre main-sequencestars. No bona fide classical Be star has yet been identified amongthem. Clusters younger than 10 Myr and without associated nebulosity arealmost completely lacking Be stars, although they have a completeunevolved B main sequence. Classical Be stars appear at an age of 10Myr, and reach the maximum abundance in the age interval 13-25 Myr. Weinterpret our results in the sense that the Be phenomenon is anevolutionary effect which appears in the second half of the mainsequence lifetime of a B star. We propose that it can be related to mainstructural changes happening at this evolutionary phase, which also leadto the recently discovered non-monotonic helium abundance enhancement.The semiconvection or turbulent diffusion responsible of the surfacehelium enrichment, coupled with the high rotational velocity, cangenerate magnetic fields via the dynamo effect and thereby originate theBe phenomenon. Observational tests to this hypothesis are proposed.
| Statistical parallaxes and kinematical parameters of classical Cepheids and young star clusters
The statistical-parallax method is applied for the first time to spacevelocities of 270 classical Cepheids with proper motions adopted fromHIPPARCOS (1997) and TRC (Hog et al. 1998) catalogs and distances basedon the period-luminosity relation by Berdnikov et al. (1996). Thedistance scale of short-period Cepheids (with periods less than 9 days)is shown to require an average correction of 15-20%, whereas statisticalparallaxes of Cepheids with periods > 9 days are found to agree wellwith photometric distances. It is shown that the luminosities ofshort-period Cepheids must have been underestimated partly due to thecontamination of this subsample by a substantial (20 to 40%) fraction offirst-overtone pulsators. The statistical-parallax technique is alsoapplied for the first time to 117 open clusters younger than 100 millionyears and with proper motions reduced to the HIPPARCOS reference system.It is concluded that a 0.12-0.15 mag increase of the distance scales ofopen clusters and Cepheids would be sufficient to reconcile thestatistical-parallax results inferred for these two types of objects.Such approach leads to an LMC distance modulus of less than 18.40 mag,which agrees, within the errors, with the short distance scale for RRLyrae variables and is at variance with the conclusions by Feast andCatchpole (1998) and Feast et al. (1998), who argue that the LMCdistance modulus should be increased to 18.70 mag. The distance scalebased on the Cepheid period-luminosity relation by Berdnikov and Efremov(1985) seems to be a good compromise. Extragalactic distances, whichrely on long-period Cepheids, seem to require no substantial correction.In addition to statistical parallaxes, kinematical parameters have beeninferred for the combined sample consisting of Cepheids andopen-clusters: solar-motion components (U0 ,V0,W0) = (9, 12, 7) km/s (+/- 1 km/s); velocity-ellipsoid axes(σU; σV; σW) = (15.0,10.3, 8.5) km/s (+/- 1 km/s); the angular velocity of rotation of thesubsystem, ω0 = 28.7 +/- 1 km/s/kpc, the Oort constantA = 17.4 +/- 1.5 km/s, and the second derivative of angular velocity,⋰ω0= 1.15 +/- 0.2 km/s/kpc3.
| Differences in the fractions of Be stars in galaxies
The number ratios Be/(B+Be) of Be to B-type stars in young, well studiedclusters of the Galaxy, the LMC and SMC are examined. In order todisentangle age and metallicity effects we choose clusters in the sameage interval and for which reliable photometric and spectroscopic dataare available. Number counts are made for various magnitude intervals,and the results are found to be stable with respect to this choice. Inthe magnitude interval MV = -5 to -1.4 (i.e. O9 to B3) weobtained a ratio Be/(B+Be) = 0.11, 0.19, 0.23, 0.39 for 21 clusterslocated in the interior of the Galaxy, the exterior of the Galaxy, theLMC and the SMC, respectively. Various hypotheses for these differencesare examined. An interesting possibility is that the average rotation isfaster at low metallicities as a result of star formation processes. Themuch higher relative N-enrichment found by Venn et al. (\cite{vencar})in A-type supergiants of the SMC, compared to galactic supergiants, alsostrongly supports the presence of more rotational mixing at lowmetallicities. We discuss whether high rotational mixing may be thesource of primary nitrogen in the early chemical evolution of galaxies.
| Absolute proper motions of 181 young open clusters.
Not Available
| Estimates of geometric and dynamic parameters of star-gas complexes in the Galaxy
Parameters of geometric models of 11 gas-star complexes (GSCs) wereobtained. We used information about GSC projections onto the celestialsphere and the Galactic plane and about GSC extension along the line ofsight. GSCs were represented as triaxial ellipsoids. To estimate thesemiminor axis of the GSC ellipsoidal model and GSC slope angle to theGalactic plane, we used data on spatial location of open stellarclusters (OSCs) entering GSCs. GSC slopes to the Galactic plane varybetween 2.5 and 20.5 deg. Their semiminor axes are between 11 and 164pc. GSC total masses are estimated from GSC tidal effect on OSCs thatare members of the corresponding GSCs. The effect manifests itself insmaller sizes of young OSCs as compared to their tidal sizes in theforce field of the Galaxy. We used studies of stability of an OSC movingin the joint force field of the Galaxy and spheroidal stationary GSC, aswell as studies of evolution of a virialized cluster located at thecenter of a nonstationary ellipsoidal GSC. Estimated total masses fordifferent GSCs lie between 0.65 x 10 exp 5 solar masses and 11.5 x 10exp 7 solar masses.
| Catalogue of blue stragglers in open clusters.
An extensive survey of blue straggler candidates in galactic openclusters of both hemispheres is presented. The blue stragglers wereselected considering their positions in the cluster colour-magnitudediagrams.They were categorized according to the accuracy of thephotometric measurements and membership probabilities. An amount of 959blue straggler candidates in 390 open clusters of all ages wereidentified and classified. A set of basic data is given for everycluster and blue straggler. The information is arranged in the form of acatalogue. Blue stragglers are found in clusters of all ages. Thepercentage of clusters with blue stragglers generally grows with age andrichness of the clusters. The mean ratio of the number of bluestragglers to the number of cluster main sequence stars is approximatelyconstant up to a cluster age of about 10^8.6^ yr and rises for olderclusters. In general, the blue stragglers show a remarkable degree ofcentral concentration.
| Be stars in young clusters
Photometric H(alpha) and H(beta) line indices for 71 B stars in sevengalactic clusters are presented. Some stars in three of the clusterswere observed at two epochs. Using these data nine Be stars wereidentified. Three of them were previously detected as emission-linestars, while six do not appear to have been previously recognized assuch. Of the 62 stars for which we find no indication of emission, threewere previously found to exhibit emission. We find that emission-lineobjects are absent among the most luminous early B giants.
| Investigation of the open star cluster NCG 957
The photographic UBV photometry of Johnson and Morgan (1957, 1961) for250 stars brighter than 14.5 m in a region of the open star cluster NGC957 is performed. The cluster size, extinction of light in the cluster'sdirection, the distance, and the cluster age are determined.
| More radial-velocity measurements in young open clusters
Further high resolution radial-velocity measurements are reported in 23young open clusters using the Kitt Peak CCD coude spectrograph on the0.9-m feed telescope. The radial velocities for the cluster stars arederived with the technique of cross correlation. The internal precisionof the velocity measurements is typically 2 km/s for early type stars.From these new data and previously published velocities, the observedstars in two clusters, NGC 663 and NGC 2287, were found to show arelatively small dispersion in the measured mean velocities. Furtherobservations of stars in young clusters will be useful in helping toestablish an early-type-star-velocity standard system.
| What happens when the massive stars form?
Observations show that O stars rapidly disrupt their parental molecularclouds and thus prevent more stars from forming in a cluster. The cloudsare eroded by stellar radiation and accelerated by stellar wind actingin concert with the Oort/Spitzer rocket effect. Once the visually opaquemolecular material is removed from the neighborhood of an OB cluster,the stars contribute significantly to the diffuse interstellar radiationfield and ionize a vast volume of space.
| A CO survey of regions around 34 open clusters. II - Physical properties of cataloged molecular clouds
The physical properties of the 148 molecular clouds found in a CO surveyof regions around 34 young open clusters have been examined. Expressionsare given for the cloud size spectrum and the mass spectrum. Themass-radius relation implies that clouds of all size larger than a fewpc have about the same mean volume density. Power laws with slopes of0.6 and 3 describe, respectively, the relations of CO linewidth andcloud mass to cloud size. The clouds are distinctly nonspherical andappear to be randomly oriented with respect to the Galactic plane. Theobservations can be explained by a model for molecular clouds in whichclouds are ensembles of dense clumps of gas. Based on such a model, itis shown that molecular clouds are perturbed on a time scale shortcompared to the time required for them to reestablish virialequilibrium.
| Some characteristics of complexes of open star clusters
Mean coordinates and velocities, phase sizes, mean elements of galacticorbits, mean ages, and metal abundances are given for 11 complexes ofopen clusters, and correlations between these characteristics arediscussed. The possible existence of a supercomplex encompassing 9 or 10complexes, and probably a number of individual clusters, is discussed.This rotates at an angular velocity of 10 to 13 km/s kpc.
| A CO survey of regions around 34 open clusters
Results are presented from a systematic search for CO emission fromregions around 34 young open clusters in the outer Galaxy. The clustershave well-determined distances ranging from about 1 to 5 kpc and agesnot greater than about 100 Myr. It was found that some moderately youngclusters have no associated CO emission. All the surveyed clustersyounger than about 5 Myr have associated with them at least onemolecular cloud more massive than 10,000 solar mass, while the molecularclouds associated with clusters older than about 10 Myr are not moremassive than a few thousands solar masses. It was also found thatmolecular clouds are receding from young clusters at a rate of about 10km/sec, and that they seem to be destroyed by their interaction with thestars. Sites of ongoing star formation were identified in a number ofclouds associated with young clusters.
| Radial-velocity measurements in 20 young open clusters
The further results of a program to determine the radial velocities ofyoung open clusters are presented. Using the KPNO coude spectrographcoupled with the 1-m feed and 2.1-m telescopes, radial velocities havebeen measured for nearly one hundred stars, most of which are ofspectral type B and A, in 20 young clusters. The combination ofinstruments and the use of cross-correlation techniques show that radialvelocities of B and A type stars as faint as 10th magnitude can bedetermined with an internal precision of less than about 2 km/s. Asexpected, the uncertainties in the velocity determination for the youngclusters are dominated by spectroscopic binary stars in these clusters.A third of the stars in the sample are found to be spectroscopicbinaries, but with a large variation in the frequency of binaries fromcluster to cluster. Because the time coverage is still limited, thisshould be considered a lower limit to the binary frequency. Clustervelocities are determined after eliminating binaries and known nonmemberstars. The new velocities are compared with a model galactic rotationcurve, as well as with previous velocity determinations.
| An optical spiral arm beyond the Perseus arm
In the second galactic quadrant, optical spiral arm tracers have beencollected in a systematic literature search. A uniform reduction of thedata led to the detection of a distinct structure (probably a spiralarm) beyond the Perseus arm that is separated by a statisticallysignificant gap from the latter.
| Component Analysis of Open Clusters
Not Available
| Young stellar-gas complexes in the Galaxy
It is found that about 90 percent of OB-associations and o-b2 clusterssituated within 3 kpc of the sun can be united into complexes withdiameters of 150-700 pc. Almost all of these clusters contain giantmolecular clouds with a mass greater than about 100,000 solar masses. Anumber of complexes are associated with giant H I clouds; a few of thesmall complexes are situated in the HI caverns. The concentration ofOB-associations and young clusters in star complexes attests to theircommon origin in the supergiant gaseous clouds.
| The classification of open clusters by the centroid method of cluster analysis
The distribution of open clusters in the Galaxy are considered, withspace coordinates including mass, absolute magnitude, integrated colorindex, diameter, metallicity, and age. It is shown that the majority ofclusters belong to several classes which have parameter values in asufficiently narrow range. The classes form a linear sequence by age andmonotonic sequence on a color-magnitude diagram. They are not isolated,but move into each other continuously. This suggests that the process ofcluster formation contains no significant gaps. The bifurcation of theage sequence of classes depending on the mass and diameter values isfound. This bifucation makes an evolutionary interpretation possible.
| On Statistics of Star Complexes
Not Available
| A cluster analysis of open clusters
The Galactic distribution of 361 open clusters is studied using acluster analysis method. It is shown that more than half of the clustersenter groups with characteristic dimensions of several hundred parsecs.To distinguish physical clusters from random condensations, criteriabased on age similarity, the color of the main-sequence blue end, andthe integrated color and radial velocity of the clusters are used. Theproximity of these values suggests a physical unity and common origin ofclusters in a group.
| Catalog of open clusters and associated interstellar matter.
Not Available
| Not Available
Not Available
| A cluster analysis of young open clusters
Cluster analysis methods are used to consider the galactic distributionof 224 open clusters with an age up to 10 to the 8th yrs. Most of theseclusters enter condensations with characteristic dimensions of a fewhundred parsecs. Some condensations are so similar in terms of the age,integrated color, and radial velocity of their components, that thiscannot be considered a coincidence. This suggests that each condensationis a physical entity consisting of clusters apparently linked by acommon origin.
| Yellow evolved stars in open clusters
This paper describes a program in which Galactic cluster post-AGBcandidates were first identified and then analyzed for clustermembership via radial velocities, monitored for possible photometricvariations, examined for evidence of mass loss, and classified ascompletely as possible in terms of their basic stellar parameters. Theintrinsically brightest supergiants are found in the youngest clusters.With increasing cluster age, the absolute luminosities attained by thesupergiants decline. It appears that the evolutionary tracks ofluminosity class II stars are more similar to those of class I than ofclass III. Only two superluminous giant star candidates are found inopen clusters.
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