New Star Cluster Candidates in the Milky Way Found in the Infrared

It is believed that the current census of star clusters in the Milky Way is far from being complete, because of high extinction. Taking advantage of recent wide-field infrared surveys (the WISE as well as 2MASS, UKIDSS GPS, and VVV), we search for new star clusters in the central region of the Milky Way (720 $deg^2$-wide area at |1| < $30^{\circ}$ and |b| < $6^{\circ}$). We find 1840 candidates by visual inspection of the WISE images. The spatial distribution of these candidates show a strong concentration along the Milky Way, showing that most of them belong to the Milky Way. Among them, 26 are probably star clusters, considering their morphology, color-magnitude diagrams, and the degree of central concentration of stars. Eighteen of them appear to be very young in the embedded phase, and six of them are considered to be relatively old, showing a developed red giant branch. Implications of the primary results will be discussed.