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Aaron M. Geller |
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My collaborators and I are conducting a comprehensive radial-velocity survey of four young open clusters: NGC 2516 (100 Myr), M35 (NGC 2168; 150 Myr), NGC 3532 (300 Myr) and M37 (NGC 2099; 350 Myr). NGC 2516 and NGC 3532 are particularly important, and are poised to become the first "canonical" open clusters in the Southern Hemisphere (much like the Pleiades in the North). Our science goals for this survey are broad, but in this talk I will focus on the role that these clusters will play in guiding numerical N-body models of open clusters. Binary populations used in such numerical simulations have long been based upon theoretical inferences and predictions (which often do not correspond with observations). Yet the initial binary population dictates much of the dynamical evolution of the parent open cluster. Our observations of these young open clusters will soon provide the essential empirical guidance needed to define realistic initial binary populations for N-body star cluster models, thereby allowing us to model the dynamical evolution of star clusters with greater accuracy than was previously possible. |