Using MASSCLEAN to Describe Stellar Clusters Found in the Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) Survey
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Date
2014
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Abstract
The important parameters: age, mass and distance of resolved or partially resolved stellar clusters are better accurately determined by using color-magnitude diagrams (CMD). However, when the main sequence turnoff is not available or clearly identifiable, large errors in all parameters result when using simple isochrone fitting, particularly when observations are limited to near-infrared bands. We used the MASSCLEAN package to perform 5 million Monte Carlo simulations of stochastically sampled stellar clusters in order to generate CMD templates for a variety of cluster masses and ages and which mimic the observational photometric errors. This results in the creation of tens of thousands of n-dimensional stellar density maps (templates) in numerous color planes as a function of age and mass. We use these MASSCLEAN CMD templates to refine and sharpen traditional isochrone fitting to analyze the newly discovered stellar clusters/cluster candidates from the Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) Survey. Our MASSCLEAN templates are also being used to design and optimize search algorithms for stellar clusters in broad-band surveys....