From young super star cluster to old globular: robust star cluster survival rates

年轻的大质量星团是强烈恒星爆发的标志。它们很重要，不仅可以作为星团形成和演化的基准，而且还可以作为恒星形成和演化历史的踪迹，以及“初始质量函数”(IMF，恒星诞生时高质量恒星与低质量恒星的比例)的历史。然而，问题仍然是，它们中是否至少有一小部分最终会演化成古老的“球状”星团。球状星系团在本星系和我们的银河系中非常常见，它们通常被认为是星系最古老的组成部分。因此，如果这一问题能够令人信服地解决，无论是哪种方式，这个拟议项目的结果都将对(I)我们对星系形成和演化的理解，以及(Ii)恒星(星团)形成所需的基本条件产生深远的影响。我建议分析几个附近活跃的“星暴”星系中精心挑选的星系团的基本性质，以便从高分辨率光谱中获得动态的星系团质量估计。结合现有的哈勃太空望远镜成像，并首次建立复杂的计算模型，我们将推导出星团形成的初始条件，它们的演化，并探索与静态场相比，这些强烈的恒星形成区域中IMF的变化。最终，这将告诉我们年轻的星团是否真的能够存活下来，成为古老的球状星团类型的物体。

Young massive star clusters are hallmarks of intense starbursts. They are important, not only as benchmarks of cluster formation and evolution, but also as tracers of the history of star formation and evolution of their host galaxies, and of the 'initial mass function' (IMF, the proportion of high to low-mass stars at the time of starbirth). Yet, the question remains whether at least a fraction of them might eventually evolve into old 'globular' clusters. Globular clusters are very common in the local Universe, and our Milky Way galaxy, and they are often regarded as the very oldest building blocks of galaxies. Therefore, if this could be settled convincingly, either way, the results of this proposed project would have far-reaching implications for (i) our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution, and (ii) the basic conditions required for star (cluster) formation. I propose to analyse the basic properties of carefully selected cluster systems in a few nearby active 'starburst' galaxies to obtain dynamical cluster mass estimates from high-resolution spectroscopy. Combined with existing Hubble Space Telescope imaging, and - for the first time - sophisticated computational modeling, we will derive the initial conditions for cluster formation, their evolution, and explore IMF variations in these intense star-forming regions, compared to the quiescent field. Ultimately, this will tell us whether young star clusters can indeed survive to become old globular cluster-type objects.