Massive Stellar Clusters in Interacting Galaxies

Abstract

Massive clusters are now seen to form easily in interacting and merging galaxies, making these excellent environments for studying the properties of young clusters. New observations of the Antennae (NGC 4038/39) show that the most luminous young clusters do not have a measurable tidal radius. Most observations suggest that the luminosity function (LF) and mass functions of young clusters are single power laws. However, there are many uncertainties at the faint end of the LF. For example, contamination from massive stars may be important. The shape and evolution of the LF, and more fundamentally, the mass function, of massive clusters had implications for our understanding of both the formation and the destruction of massive stellar clusters.