Young Open Clusters: Their Uses in Star Formation Studies

Open clusters are one of stellar systems consisting of a few hundreds to thousands of stars. The cluster members are, in general, believed to be a coeval stellar population at the same distance, and therefore they have almost the same properties in chemical composition and kinematics. Owing to these advantages, the clusters are utilized in many astronomy studies, such as the calibrations of distance and stellar age scales, assessments of stellar evolution theories, and the chemical evolution of the Galactic disk. Young open clusters are, inter alia, superb objects to study star formation process as most of stars are known to be formed in clusters. In this talk, I will review the uses of these young open clusters in star formation studies based on the ongoing work of our research group on the stellar initial mass function, an age spread problem, mass accretion rate of pre-main sequence stars, and a feedback of high-mass stars on surroundings.