Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userStar Formation in the First Galaxies - II: Clustered Star Formation and the Influence of Metal Line Cooling
102
0
0.0
(
0
)
Added by
Chalence Safranek-Shrader
Publication date
2013
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
Population III stars are believed to have been more massive than typical stars today and to have formed in relative isolation. The thermodynamic impact of metals is expected to induce a transition leading to clustered, low-mass Population II star formation. In this work, we present results from three cosmological simulations, only differing in gas metallicity, that focus on the impact of metal fine-structure line cooling on the formation of stellar clusters in a high-redshift atomic cooling halo. Introduction of sink particles allows us to follow the process of gas hydrodynamics and accretion onto cluster stars for 4 Myr corresponding to multiple local free-fall times. At metallicities at least $10^{-3}, Z_{odot}$, gas is able to reach the CMB temperature floor and fragment pervasively resulting in a stellar cluster of size $sim1$ pc and total mass $sim1000, M_{odot}$. The masses of individual sink particles vary, but are typically $sim100, M_{odot}$, consistent with the Jeans mass when gas cools to the CMB temperature, though some solar mass fragments are also produced. At the low metallicity of $10^{-4}, Z_{odot}$, fragmentation is completely suppressed on scales greater than 0.01 pc and total stellar mass is lower by a factor of 3 than in the higher metallicity simulations. The sink particle accretion rates, and thus their masses, are determined by the mass of the gravitationally unstable gas cloud and the prolonged gas accretion over many Myr. The simulations thus exhibit features of both monolithic collapse and competitive accretion. Even considering possible dust induced fragmentation that would occur at higher densities, the formation of a bona fide stellar cluster seems to require metal line cooling and metallicities of at least $10^{-3}, Z_{odot}$.
rate research
Read More
We present a cluster analysis of the bright main-sequence and faint pre--main-sequence stellar populations of a field ~ 90 x 90 pc centered on the HII region NGC 346/N66 in the Small Magellanic Cloud, from imaging with HST/ACS. We extend our earlier analysis on the stellar cluster population in the region to characterize the structuring behavior of young stars in the region as a whole with the use of stellar density maps interpreted through techniques designed for the study of the ISM structuring. In particular, we demonstrate with Cartwrigth & Whitworths Q parameter, dendrograms, and the Delta-variance wavelet transform technique that the young stellar populations in the region NGC 346/N66 are hierarchically clustered, in agreement with other regions in the Magellanic Clouds observed with HST. The origin of this hierarchy is currently under investigation.
The realization that most stars form in clusters, raises the question of whether star/planet formation are influenced by the cluster environment. The stellar density in the most prevalent clusters is the key factor here. Whether dominant modes of clustered star formation exist is a fundamental question. Using near-neighbour searches in young clusters Bressert et al. (2010) claim this not to be the case and conclude that star formation is continuous from isolated to densely clustered. We investigate under which conditions near-neighbour searches can distinguish between different modes of clustered star formation. Near-neighbour searches are performed for model star clusters investigating the influence of the combination of different cluster modes, observational biases, and types of diagnostic and find that the cluster density profile, the relative sample sizes, limitations in observations and the choice of diagnostic method decides whether modelled modes of clustered star formation are detected. For centrally concentrated density distributions spanning a wide density range (King profiles) separate cluster modes are only detectable if the mean density of the individual clusters differs by at least a factor of ~65. Introducing a central cut-off can lead to underestimating the mean density by more than a factor of ten. The environmental effect on star and planet formation is underestimated for half of the population in dense systems. A analysis of a sample of cluster environments involves effects of superposition that suppress characteristic features and promotes erroneous conclusions. While multiple peaks in the distribution of the local surface density imply the existence of different modes, the reverse conclusion is not possible. Equally, a smooth distribution is not a proof of continuous star formation, because such a shape can easily hide modes of clustered star formation (abridged)
Recent simulation work has successfully captured the formation of the star clusters that have been observed in merging galaxies. These studies, however, tend to focus on studying extreme starbursts, such as the Antennae galaxies. We aim to establish whether there is something special occurring in these extreme systems or whether the mechanism for cluster formation is present in all mergers to a greater or lesser degree. We undertake a general study of merger-induced star formation in a sample of 5 pc resolution adaptive mesh refinement simulations of low redshift equal-mass mergers with randomly-chosen orbital parameters. We find that there is an enhanced mass fraction of very dense gas that appears as the gas density probability density function evolves during the merger. This finding has implications for the interpretation of some observations; a larger mass fraction of dense gas could account for the enhanced HCN/CO ratios seen in ULIRGs and predicts that alpha_CO is lower in mergers, as for a given mass of H_2, CO emission will increase in a denser environment. We also find that as the star formation rate increases, there is a correlated peak in the velocity dispersion of the gas, which we attribute to increasing turbulence driven by the interaction itself. Star formation tends to be clumpy: in some cases there is extended clumpy star formation, but even when star formation is concentrated within the inner kpc (i.e. what may be considered a nuclear starburst) it still often has a clumpy, rather than a smooth, distribution. We find no strong evidence for a clear bimodality in the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation for the average mergers simulated here. Instead, they are typically somewhat offset above the predicted quiescent relation during their starbursts.
If we are to develop a comprehensive and predictive theory of galaxy formation and evolution, it is essential that we obtain an accurate assessment of how and when galaxies assemble their stellar populations, and how this assembly varies with environment. There is strong observational support for the hierarchical assembly of galaxies, but our insight into this assembly comes from sifting through the resolved field populations of the surviving galaxies we see today, in order to reconstruct their star formation histories, chemical evolution, and kinematics. To obtain the detailed distribution of stellar ages and metallicities over the entire life of a galaxy, one needs multi-band photometry reaching solar-luminosity main sequence stars. The Hubble Space Telescope can obtain such data in the low-density regions of Local Group galaxies. To perform these essential studies for a fair sample of the Local Universe, we will require observational capabilities that allow us to extend the study of resolved stellar populations to much larger galaxy samples that span the full range of galaxy morphologies, while also enabling the study of the more crowded regions of relatively nearby galaxies. With such capabilities in hand, we will reveal the detailed history of star formation and chemical evolution in the universe.
We investigate the formation of both clustered and distributed populations of young stars in a single molecular cloud. We present a numerical simulation of a 10,000 solar mass elongated, turbulent, molecular cloud and the formation of over 2500 stars. The stars form both in stellar clusters and in a distributed mode which is determined by the local gravitational binding of the cloud. A density gradient along the major axis of the cloud produces bound regions that form stellar clusters and unbound regions that form a more distributed population. The initial mass function also depends on the local gravitational binding of the cloud with bound regions forming full IMFs whereas in the unbound, distributed regions the stellar masses cluster around the local Jeans mass and lack both the high-mass and the low-mass stars. The overall efficiency of star formation is ~ 15 % in the cloud when the calculation is terminated, but varies from less than 1 % in the the regions of distributed star formation to ~ 40 % in regions containing large stellar clusters. Considering that large scale surveys are likely to catch clouds at all evolutionary stages, estimates of the (time-averaged) star formation efficiency for the giant molecular cloud reported here is only ~ 4 %. This would lead to the erroneous conclusion of slow star formation when in fact it is occurring on a dynamical timescale.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
