Property of Young Massive Clusters in a Galaxy-Galaxy Merger Remnant

Abstract: We investigate the properties of young massive clusters (YMCs) in a galaxy-galaxy merger remnant by analyzing the data obtained by a gas rich major merger simulations in Matsui et al. 2012. We found that the YMCs are distributed at a few $\rm kpc$ and at $\sim 10~{\rm kpc}$ from the galactic center, in other words, there are two components of their distribution. The former are formed in filamentary and turbulent gas generated at a few $\rm kpc$ from the center because of galaxy encounters, and the latter are formed in tidal tails which are far from the center. The YMCs are much less concentrated than galaxy stars. The mass function of the YMCs is $dN/dM \propto M^{-2}$. Most of YMCs are formed from the second encounter to the final coalescence phase of the galactic cores, and their formation rate is especially high at final coalescence phase. Most of them consists of single stellar population in age, but YMCs with multi stellar populations in age are also formed. The multiple populations are produced by the following process: a YMC captures dense gas, and another generation stars form within the cluster. There are several YMCs formed in an isolated disk before the encounter of galaxies. These candidates contain stars with various age by capturing dense gas and forming stars. YMCs in a merger remnant, have various orbits, but large fraction of candidates have circular orbits.