Paper detail

Mass Segregation of Embedded Clusters in the Milky Way

Embedded clusters are ideal laboratories to understand the early phase of the dynamical evolution of clusters as well as the massive star formation. An interesting observational phenomenon is that some of the embedded clusters show mass segregation, i.e., the most massive stars are preferentially found near the cluster center. In this paper, we develop a new approach to describe mass segregation. Using this approach and the Two Micron All Sky Survey Point Source Catalog (2MASS PSC), we analyze eighteen embedded clusters in the Galaxy. We find that eleven of them are mass-segregated and that the others are non-mass-segregated. No inversely mass-segregated cluster is found.