Publications by authors named "Jacco Th van Loon"

Farr and Mandel reanalyze our data, finding initial mass function slopes for high-mass stars in 30 Doradus that agree with our results. However, their reanalysis appears to underpredict the observed number of massive stars. Their technique results in more precise slopes than in our work, strengthening our conclusion that there is an excess of massive stars (>30 solar masses) in 30 Doradus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are largely unidentified molecules ubiquitously present in the interstellar medium (ISM). After decades of study, two strong and possibly three weak near-infrared DIBs have recently been attributed to the [Formula: see text] fullerene based on observational and laboratory measurements. There is great promise for the identification of the over 400 other known DIBs, as this result could provide chemical hints towards other possible carriers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Chemical evolution of star clusters.

Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci

February 2010

I discuss the chemical evolution of star clusters, with emphasis on old Galactic globular clusters (GCs), in relation to their formation histories. GCs are clearly formed in a complex fashion, under markedly different conditions from any younger clusters presently known. Those special conditions must be linked to the early formation epoch of the Galaxy and must not have occurred since.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF