Four highly luminous massive star-forming regions in the norma spiral arm. II. Deep near-infrared imaging

Abstract

We present sensitive near-infrared (J, H, and K) imaging observations toward four luminous massive star-forming regions in the Norma Spiral Arm: G324.201+0.119, G328.307+0.432, G329.337+0.147, and G330.949-0.174. We identify three clusters of young stellar objects (YSOs) based on surface density diagnostics. We also find that sources detected only in the H and K bands and with colors corresponding to spectral types earlier than B2, are likely YSOs. We analyze the spatial distribution of stars of different masses and find signatures in two clusters of primordial mass segregation that cannot be explained as due to incompleteness effects. We show that dynamic interactions of cluster members with the dense gas from the parent core can explain the observed mass segregation, indicating that the gas plays an important role in the dynamics of young clusters. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society.