2006A&A...455L..17L

We predict the survival time of initially bound star clusters in the solar neighbourhood taking into account: (1) stellar evolution, (2) tidal stripping, (3) shocking by spiral arms and (4) encounters with giant molecular clouds. We find that the predicted dissolution time is t_dis=1.7(M_i/10⁴M_☉)^0.67Gyr for clusters in the mass range of 10²<M_i<10⁵M_☉. The resulting predicted shape of the logarithmic age distribution agrees very well with the empirical one, derived from a complete sample of clusters in the solar neighbourhood within 600pc. The required scaling factor implies a star formation rate of 4x10²M_☉/Myr within 600pc from the Sun or a surface formation rate of 3.5x10^–10M_☉/yr/pc2 for stars in bound clusters with an initial mass in the range of 10² to 3x10⁴M_☉.