IC 1848 is one of the young open clusters in the giant star forming Cas OB6 association .
Several interesting aspects relating to star formation processes in giant star forming regions attracted us to study the initial mass function ( IMF ) , star formation mode , and properties of pre-main sequence stars ( PMS ) .
A UBVI and H \alpha photometric study of the young open cluster IC 1848 was conducted as part of the “ Sejong Open cluster Survey ” ( SOS ) .
We have selected 105 early-type members from photometric diagrams .
Their mean reddening is \langle E ( B - V ) \rangle = 0.660 \pm 0.054 mag .
Using the published photometric data with near- and mid-infrared archival data we confirmed the normal reddening law ( R _ { V } = 3.1 ) toward the cluster ( IC 1848 ) .
A careful zero-age main sequence fitting gives a distance modulus of V _ { 0 } - M _ { V } = 11.7 \pm 0.2 mag , equivalent to 2.2 \pm 0.2 kpc .
H \alpha photometry and the list of young stellar objects identified by Koenig et al .
permitted us to select a large number of PMS stars comprising 196 H \alpha emission stars , 35 H \alpha emission candidates , 5 Class I , 368 Class II , and 24 transition disk candidates .
From the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram using stellar evolution models , we estimate an age of 5 Myr from several evolved stars and 3 Myr from the PMS stars .
The IMF was derived from stars with mass larger than 3 M _ { \sun } , and the slope is slightly steeper ( \Gamma = -1.6 \pm 0.2 ) than the Salpeter/Kroupa IMF .
Finally , we estimated the mass accretion rate of PMS stars with a UV excess .
The mean mass accretion rate is about 1.4 \times 10 ^ { -8 } M _ { \sun } \mathrm { yr } ^ { -1 } in the mass range of 0.5 M _ { \sun } to 2 M _ { \sun } , whereas intermediate-mass stars ( \geq 2.5 M _ { \sun } ) exhibit a much higher accretion rate of \dot { M } > 10 ^ { -6 } M _ { \sun } \mathrm { yr } ^ { -1 } .