TY - JOUR
T1 - The ACS nearby galaxy survey treasury. X. Quantifying the star cluster formation efficiency of nearby dwarf galaxies
AU - Cook, David O.
AU - Seth, Anil C.
AU - Dale, Daniel A.
AU - Johnson, L. Clifton
AU - Weisz, Daniel R.
AU - Fouesneau, Morgan
AU - Olsen, Knut A.G.
AU - Engelbracht, Charles W.
AU - Dalcanton, Julianne J.
PY - 2012/6/1
Y1 - 2012/6/1
N2 - We study the relationship between the field star formation and cluster formation properties in a large sample of nearby dwarf galaxies. We use optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope and from ground-based telescopes to derive the ages and masses of the young (t age ≲ 100Myr) cluster sample. Our data provide the first constraints on two proposed relationships between the star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies and the properties of their cluster systems in the low SFR regime. The data show broad agreement with these relationships, but significant galaxy-to-galaxy scatter exists. In part, this scatter can be accounted for by simulating the small number of clusters detected from stochastically sampling the cluster mass function. However, this stochasticity does not fully account for the observed scatter in our data, suggesting that there may be true variations in the fraction of stars formed in clusters in dwarf galaxies. Comparison of the cluster formation and the brightest cluster in our sample galaxies also provide constraints on cluster destruction models.
AB - We study the relationship between the field star formation and cluster formation properties in a large sample of nearby dwarf galaxies. We use optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope and from ground-based telescopes to derive the ages and masses of the young (t age ≲ 100Myr) cluster sample. Our data provide the first constraints on two proposed relationships between the star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies and the properties of their cluster systems in the low SFR regime. The data show broad agreement with these relationships, but significant galaxy-to-galaxy scatter exists. In part, this scatter can be accounted for by simulating the small number of clusters detected from stochastically sampling the cluster mass function. However, this stochasticity does not fully account for the observed scatter in our data, suggesting that there may be true variations in the fraction of stars formed in clusters in dwarf galaxies. Comparison of the cluster formation and the brightest cluster in our sample galaxies also provide constraints on cluster destruction models.
KW - galaxies: dwarf
KW - galaxies: irregular
KW - galaxies: star clusters: general
KW - galaxies: star clusters: individual
KW - galaxies: star formation
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U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/751/2/100
DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/751/2/100
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84861136586
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 751
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 100
ER -