1. Probing Mass Segregation in NGC 6397
- Author
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Martinazzi, E., Pieres, A., Kepler, S. O., Costa, J. E. S., Bonatto, C., and Bica, E.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) - Abstract
In this study, we present a detailed study of mass segregation in the globular clister NGC 6397. First, we carry out a photometric analysis of projected ESO-VLT data (between 1 and 10 arcmin from the cluster centre), presenting the luminosity function corrected by completeness. The luminosity function shows a higher density of bright stars near the central region of the data, with respect to the outer region. We calculate a deprojected model (covering the whole cluster) estimating a total number of stars of 193000 +- 19000. The shapes of the surface brightness and density-number profiles versus the radial coordinate r (instead of the projected coordinate R) lead to a decreasing luminosity for an average star, and thus of mass, up to 1 arcmin, quantifying the mass segregation. The deprojected model does not show evidence of mass segregation outside this region.
- Published
- 2014
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