An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

An empirical power-law representing the number of stellar clusters as a function of the number of stars per cluster within an interval. It is expressed as: N(N) dN∝ N^-α dN, where N(N) is the number of clusters containing N stars and dN_* is the interval in star number. It is believed that this relationship applies to a variety of systems, including stellar clusters, globular clusters, H II regions (Oey et al. 2004, AJ 127, 1632).

See also: → clustering; → law.