M31 PHAT star clusters ages and masses

We derive the ages and masses using a probabilistic technique, which accounts for the effects of stochastic sampling of the stellar initial mass function. Tests on synthetic data show that this method, in conjunction with the exquisite sensitivity of the PHAT observations and their broad wavelength baseline, provides robust age and mass recovery for clusters ranging from ~10^2^ to 2x10^6^ M_{sun}_.

We find that the cluster age distribution is consistent with being uniform over the past 100 Myr, which suggests a weak effect of cluster disruption within M31. The age distribution of older (>100 Myr) clusters falls toward old ages, consistent with a power-law decline of index -1, likely from a combination of fading and disruption of the clusters. We find that the mass distribution of the whole sample can be well described by a single power law with a spectral index of -1.9+/-0.1 over the range of 10^3^-3x10^5^ M_{sun}_.