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It is textbook knowledge that open clusters are conspicuous members of the thin disk of our Galaxy, but their role as contributors to the stellar population of the disk was regarded as minor. Starting from a homogenous stellar sky survey, the ASCC-2.5, we revisited the population of open clusters in the solar neighbourhood from scratch. In the course of this enterprise we detected 130 formerly unknown open clusters, constructed volume- and magnitude-limited samples of clusters, re-determined distances, motions, sizes, ages, luminosities and masses of 650 open clusters. We derived the present-day luminosity and mass functions of open clusters (not the stellar mass function in open clusters), the cluster initial mass function CIMF and the formation rate of open clusters. We find that open clusters contributed around 40 percent to the stellar content of the disk during the history of our Galaxy. Hence, open clusters are important building blocks of the Galactic disk.
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Open clusters are unique tracers of the history of our own Galaxys disk. According to our membership analysis based on textit{Gaia} astrometry, out of the 226 potential clusters falling in the footprint of GALAH or APOGEE, we find that 205 have secure members that were observed by at least one of the survey. Furthermore, members of 134 clusters have high-quality spectroscopic data that we use to determine their chemical composition. We leverage this information to study the chemical distribution throughout the Galactic disk of 21 elements, from C to Eu. The radial metallicity gradient obtained from our analysis is $-$0.076$pm$0.009 dex kpc$^{-1}$, which is in agreement with previous works based on smaller samples. Furthermore, the gradient in the [Fe/H] - guiding radius (r$_{rm guid}$) plane is $-$0.073$pm$0.008 dex kpc$^{-1}$. We show consistently that open clusters trace the distribution of chemical elements throughout the Galactic disk differently than field stars. In particular, at given radius, open clusters show an age-metallicity relation that has less scatter than field stars. As such scatter is often interpreted as an effect of radial migration, we suggest that these differences are due to the physical selection effect imposed by our Galaxy: clusters that would have migrated significantly also had higher chances to get destroyed. Finally, our results reveal trends in the [X/Fe]$-$r$_{rm guid}$$-$age space, which are important to understand production rates of different elements as a function of space and time.
New photometric material is presented for 6 outer disk supposedly old, Galact ic star clusters: Berkeley 76, Haffner 4, Ruprecht 10, Haffner 7, Haffner 11, and Haffner 15, that are projected against the rich and complex Canis Major overde nsity at $225^o leq l leq 248^o $, $-7^o leq b leq -2^o$. This CCD data-set, in the UBVI pass-bands, is used to derive their fundamental parameters, in particular age and distance. Four of the program clusters turn out to be older than 1 Gyr. This fact makes them ideal targets for future spectroscopic campaigns aiming at deriving their metal abundances. This, in turn, contributes to increase the number of well-studied outer disk o ld open clusters. Only Haffner 15, previously considered an old cluster, is found to be a young, significantly reddened cluster, member of the Perseus arm in the third Galactic quadrant. As for Haffner~4, we suggest an age of about half a Gyr. The most interesting result we found is that Berkeley~76 is probably located at more than 17 kpc from the Galactic center, and therefore is among the most peripherical old open clusters so far detected. Besides, for Ruprecht~10 and Haffner~7, which were never studied before, we pr opose ages larger than 1 Gyr. All the old clusters of this sample are scarcely populated and show evidence o f tidal interaction with the Milky Way, and are therefore most probably in advanced st ages of dynamical dissolution.
Radial migration is an important process in the Galactic disk. A few open clusters show some evidence on this mechanism but there is no systematic study. In this work, we investigate the role of radial migration on the Galactic disk based on a large sample of 146 open clusters with homogeneous metallicity and age from Netopil et al. and kinematics calculated from Gaia DR2. The birth site Rb, guiding radius Rg and other orbital parameters are calculated, and the migration distance |Rg-Rb| is obtained, which is a combination of metallicity, kinematics and age information. It is found that 44% open clusters have |Rg-Rb|< 1 kpc, for which radial migration (churning) is not significant. Among the remaining 56% open clusters with |Rg-Rb|> 1 kpc, young ones with t<1.0 Gyr tend to migrate inward, while older clusters usually migrate outward. Different mechanisms of radial migration between young and old clusters are suggested based on their different migration rates, Galactic locations and orbital parameters. For the old group, we propose a plausible way to estimate migration rate and obtain a reasonable value of 1.5(+-0.5) kpc/Gyr based on ten intermediate-age clusters at the outer disk, where the existence of several special clusters implies its complicate formation history.
Could the velocity spread, increasing with time, in the Galactic disk be explained as a result of gravitational interactions of stars with giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and spiral arms? Do the old open clusters high above the Galactic plane provide clues to this question? We explore the effects on stellar orbits of scattering by inhomogeneities in the Galactic potential due to GMCs, spiral arms and the Galactic bar, and whether high-altitude clusters could have formed in orbits closer to the Galactic plane and later been scattered. Simulations of test-particle motions are performed in a realistic Galactic potential. The effects of the internal structure of GMCs are explored. The destruction of clusters in GMC collisions is treated in detail with N-body simulations of the clusters. The observed velocity dispersions of stars as a function of time are well reproduced. The GMC structure is found to be significant, but adequate models produce considerable scattering effects. The fraction of simulated massive old open clusters, scattered into orbits with |z| > 400 pc, is typically 0:5%, in agreement with the observed number of high-altitude clusters and consistent with the present formation rate of massive open clusters. The heating of the thin Galactic disk is well explained by gravitational scattering by GMCs and spiral arms, if the local correlation between the GMC mass and the corresponding voids in the gas is not very strong. Our results suggest that the high-altitude metal-rich clusters were formed in orbits close to the Galactic plane and later scattered to higher orbits. It is possible, though not very probable, that the Sun formed in such a cluster before scattering occurred.
Based on an almost complete sample of Galactic open star clusters within 1.8 kpc, we perform a comprehensive statistical analysis of various cluster parameters like spatial position, age, size, mass and extinction in order to understand the general properties of the open cluster system in the Galaxy and the Galactic structure. Based on the distribution of 1241 open clusters about the Galactic plane and in different age bins, we find the average Galactic scale height as Zh = 60+/-2 pc for the youngest cluster population having Age <700 Myr, however, it increases up to 64+/-2 pc when we also include older population of clusters. The solar offset is found to be 6.2+/-1.1 pc above the formal Galactic plane. We derive a local mass density of rho_0 = 0.090+/-0.005 Msun/pc^3 and found a negligibly small amount of dark matter in the solar neighbourhood. The reddening in the direction of clusters suggests a strong correlation with their vertical distance from the Galactic plane having a respective slope of dE(B-V)/dz = 0.40+/-0.04 and 0.42+/-0.05 mag/kpc below and above the GP. We observe a linear mass-radius and mass-age relations in the open clusters and derive a slope of dR/d(logM) = 2.08+/-0.10 and d(logM)/d(logT) = -0.36+/-0.05,respectively.
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