Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lewis, Sean C.
• McMillan, Stephen L. W.
• Low, Mordecai-Mark Mac
• Cournoyer-Cloutier, Claude
• Polak, Brooke
• Wilhelm, Martijn J. C.
• Tran, Aaron
• Sills, Alison
• Zwart, Simon Portegies
• Klessen, Ralf S.
• Wall, Joshua E.

Titel

Early-forming Massive Stars Suppress Star Formation and Hierarchical Cluster Assembly

Ist Teil von

• The Astrophysical journal, 2023-02, Vol.944 (2), p.211

Ort / Verlag

Philadelphia: The American Astronomical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Abstract Feedback from massive stars plays an important role in the formation of star clusters. Whether a very massive star is born early or late in the cluster formation timeline has profound implications for the star cluster formation and assembly processes. We carry out a controlled experiment to characterize the effects of early-forming massive stars on star cluster formation. We use the star formation software suite Torch , combining self-gravitating magnetohydrodynamics, ray-tracing radiative transfer, N -body dynamics, and stellar feedback, to model four initially identical 10 4 M ⊙ giant molecular clouds with a Gaussian density profile peaking at 521.5 cm −3 . Using the Torch software suite through the AMUSE framework, we modify three of the models, to ensure that the first star that forms is very massive (50, 70, and 100 M ⊙ ). Early-forming massive stars disrupt the natal gas structure, resulting in fast evacuation of the gas from the star-forming region. The star formation rate is suppressed, reducing the total mass of the stars formed. Our fiducial control model, without an early massive star, has a larger star formation rate and total efficiency by up to a factor of 3, and a higher average star formation efficiency per freefall time by up to a factor of 7. Early-forming massive stars promote the buildup of spatially separate and gravitationally unbound subclusters, while the control model forms a single massive cluster.