The existing open-cluster membership determination algorithms are either prior dependent on some known parameters of clusters or are not automatable to large samples of clusters. In this paper, we present ml-moc, a new machine-learning-based approach to identify likely members of open clusters using the Gaia DR2 data and no a priori information about cluster parameters. We use the k-nearest neighbour (kNN) algorithm and the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) on high-precision proper motions and parallax measurements from the Gaia DR2 data to determine the membership probabilities of individual sources down to G ∼ 20 mag. To validate the developed method, we apply it to 15 open clusters: M67, NGC 2099, NGC 2141, NGC 2243, NGC 2539, NGC 6253, NGC 6405, NGC 6791, NGC 7044, NGC 7142, NGC 752, Blanco 1, Berkeley 18, IC 4651, and Hyades. These clusters differ in terms of their ages, distances, metallicities, and extinctions and cover a wide parameter space in proper motions and parallaxes with respect to the field population. The extracted members produce clean colour–magnitude diagrams and our astrometric parameters of the clusters are in good agreement with the values derived in previous work. The estimated degree of contamination in the extracted members ranges between 2 ${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ and 12 ${{\ \rm per\ cent}}$. The results show that ml-moc is a reliable approach to segregate open-cluster members from field stars.

We utilize the robust membership determination algorithm, ML-MOC, on the precise astrometric and deep photometric data from Gaia Early Data Release 3 within a region of radius 5○ around the center of the intermediate-age galactic open cluster NGC 752 to identify its member stars. We report the discovery of the tidal tails of NGC 752, extending out to ∼35 pc on either side of its denser central region and following the cluster orbit. From comparison with PARSEC stellar isochrones, we obtain the mass function of the cluster with a slope, χ = −1.26 ± 0.07. The high negative value of χ is indicative of a disintegrating cluster undergoing mass-segregation. χ is more negative in the intra-tidal regions as compared to the outskirts of NGC 752. We estimate a present day mass of the cluster, M$\rm _{C}=297\pm 10$ M⊙. Through mass-loss due to stellar evolution and tidal interactions, we further estimate that NGC 752 has lost nearly 95.2-98.5% of its initial mass, $\rm M_{i}~=~0.64~-2~\times ~10^{4}~M_{\odot }$.

ABSTRACT Blue straggler stars (BSS) are well studied in globular clusters but their systematic study with secure membership determination is lacking in open clusters. We use Gaia DR2 data to determine accurate stellar membership for four intermediate-age open clusters, namely Melotte 66, NGC 2158, NGC 2506, and NGC 6819, and three old open clusters, namely, Berkeley 39, NGC 188, and NGC 6791, to subsequently study their BSS populations. The BSS radial distributions of five clusters, namely Melotte 66, NGC 188, NGC 2158, NGC 2506, and NGC 6791, show bimodal distributions, placing them with Family II globular clusters that are of intermediate dynamical ages. The location of minima, rmin, in the bimodal BSS radial distributions, varies from 1.5rc to 4.0rc, where rc is the core radius of the clusters. We find a positive correlation between rmin and Nrelax, the ratio of cluster age to the current central relaxation time of the cluster. We further report that this correlation is consistent in its slope, within the errors, with the slope of the globular cluster correlation between the same quantities, but with a slightly higher intercept. This is the first example in open clusters that shows BSS radial distributions as efficient probes of dynamical age. The BSS radial distributions of the remaining two clusters, Berkeley 39 and NGC 6819, are flat. The estimated Nrelax values of these two clusters, however, indicate that they are dynamically evolved. Berkeley 39 especially has its entire BSS population completely segregated to the inner regions of the cluster.

The sedimentation level of blue straggler stars (BSS) has been shown to be a great tool to investigate the dynamical states of globular clusters (GCs). The area enclosed between the cumulative radial distributions of BSS and a reference population up to the half-mass radius of the clusters, $A^+_{\mathrm{rh}}$, is known to be a measure of the sedimentation of BSS in GCs. In this work, we calculate $A^+_{\mathrm{rh}}$ for 11 open clusters (OCs) using a combined list of main-sequence turn-off stars, sub-giant branch stars, and red-giant branch stars as reference population. The BSS, the reference populations, and the cluster members are identified using the proper motions and parallaxes from the Gaia DR2 data. In a subset of clusters, the BSS are confirmed cluster members on the basis of radial velocity information available in the literature. Using the Pearson and Spearman rank correlation coefficients, we find weak correlations between the estimated values of $A^+_{\mathrm{rh}}$ and other markers of dynamical ages of the clusters, i.e. the number of central relaxations a cluster has experienced since its formation, and the structural parameters of the clusters. Based on statistical tests, we find that these correlations are similar to the corresponding correlations among the less evolved GCs, albeit within large errors.

We investigated the use of seaweed-derived agar-based composite films as sound absorbers. Nonporous and porous films of varying concentrations of agar (1% to 5% w/v) and their composite films with glycerol (5% w/w) as the plasticizer and nanocrystalline cellulose (2% to 10% w/w) as the reinforcement material were fabricated. Porous films, of about 80% porosity, were obtained by a freeze-drying technique and nonporous films by drying in a hot air oven. Scanning electron microscopy study showed that porous films had interconnected walls with a pore size of 10 μm. Measured acoustic absorption coefficients using the twomicrophone transfer function method revealed that the porous films were effective in sound absorption. The films of 5% w/v agar concentration had the highest sound absorption. The addition of glycerol enhanced sound absorption, due to the damping nature induced by it, whereas the addition of nanocrystalline cellulose to the glycerol-added films did not alter its acoustic properties.