No Arabic abstract
The early evolution of a dense young star cluster (YSC) depends on the intricate connection between stellar evolution and dynamical processes. Thus, N-body simulations of YSCs must account for both aspects. We discuss N-body simulations of YSCs with three different metallicities (Z=0.01, 0.1 and 1 Zsun), including metallicity-dependent stellar evolution recipes and metallicity-dependent prescriptions for stellar winds and remnant formation. We show that mass-loss by stellar winds influences the reversal of core collapse. In particular, the post-collapse expansion of the core is faster in metal-rich YSCs than in metal-poor YSCs, because the former lose more mass (through stellar winds) than the latter. As a consequence, the half-mass radius expands more in metal-poor YSCs. We also discuss how these findings depend on the total mass and on the virial radius of the YSC. These results give us a clue to understand the early evolution of YSCs with different metallicity.
We study the impact of different galaxy statistics and empirical metallicity scaling relations on the merging rates and on the properties of compact objects binaries. First, we analyze the similarities and differences of using the star formation rate functions or the stellar mass functions as galaxy statistics for the computation of the cosmic star formation rate density. Then we investigate the effects of adopting the Fundamental Metallicity Relation or a classic Mass Metallicity Relation to assign metallicity to galaxies with given properties. We find that when the Fundamental Metallicity Relation is exploited, the bulk of the star formation occurs at relatively high metallicities even at high redshift; the opposite holds when the Mass Metallicity Relation is employed, since in this case the metallicity at which most of the star formation takes place strongly decreases with redshift. We discuss the various reasons and possible biases originating this discrepancy. Finally, we show the impact that these different astrophysical prescriptions have on the merging rates and on the properties of compact objects binaries; specifically, we present results for the redshift dependent merging rates and for the chirp mass and time delay distributions of the merging binaries.
We explore how the star formation efficiency in a protocluster clump is regulated by metallicity dependent stellar winds from the newly formed massive OB stars (Mstar >5 Msol). The model describes the co-evolution of the mass function of gravitationally bound cores and of the IMF in a protocluster clump. Dense cores are generated uniformly in time at different locations in the clump, and contract over lifetimes that are a few times their free fall times. The cores collapse to form stars that power strong stellar winds whose cumulative kinetic energy evacuates the gas from the clump and quenches further core and star formation. This sets the final star formation efficiency, SFEf. Models are run with various metallicities in the range Z/Zsol=[0.1,2]. We find that the SFEf decreases strongly with increasing metallicity.The SFEf-metallicity relation is well described by a decaying exponential whose exact parameters depend weakly on the value of the core formation efficiency. We find that there is almost no dependence of the SFEf-metallicity relation on the clump mass. This is due to the fact that an increase (decrease) in the clump mass leads to an increase (decrease) in the feedback from OB stars which is opposed by an increase (decrease) in the gravitational potential of the clump. The clump mass-cluster mass relations we find for all of the different metallicity cases imply a negligible difference between the exponent of the mass function of the protocluster clumps and that of the young clusters mass function. By normalizing the SFEs to their value for the solar metallicity case, we compare our results to SFE-metallicity relations derived on galactic scales and find a good agreement. As a by-product of this study, we also provide ready-to-use prescriptions for the power of stellar winds of main sequence OB stars in the mass range [5,80] Msol in the metallicity range we have considered
We compare the impacts of uncertainties in both binary population synthesis models and the cosmic star formation history on the predicted rates of Gravitational Wave compact binary merger (GW) events. These uncertainties cause the predicted rates of GW events to vary by up to an order of magnitude. Varying the volume-averaged star formation rate density history of the Universe causes the weakest change to our predictions, while varying the metallicity evolution has the strongest effect. Double neutron-star merger rates are more sensitive to assumed neutron-star kick velocity than the cosmic star formation history. Varying certain parameters affects merger rates in different ways depending on the mass of the merging compact objects; thus some of the degeneracy may be broken by looking at all the event rates rather than restricting ourselves to one class of mergers.
We study the effect of the instantaneous gas expulsion on star clusters wherein the residual gas has a density profile shallower than that of the embedded cluster. This is expected if star formation proceeds with a given SFE per free-fall time in a centrally-concentrated molecular clump. We perform direct N-body simulations whose initial conditions are generated by the program mkhalo falcON adapted for our models. Our model clusters initially have a Plummer profile and are in virial equilibrium with the gravitational potential of the cluster-forming clump. The residual gas contribution is computed based on the model of Parmentier&Pfalzner(2013). Our simulations include mass loss by stellar evolution and the tidal field of the Galaxy. We find that a star cluster with a minimum global SFE of 15% is able to survive instantaneous gas expulsion and to produce a bound cluster. Its violent relaxation lasts no longer than 20 Myr, independently of its global SFE and initial stellar mass. At the end of violent relaxation the bound fractions of surviving clusters with the same global SFEs are similar regardless of their initial stellar mass. Their subsequent lifetime in the gravitational field of the Galaxy depends on their bound stellar masses. We therefore conclude that the critical SFE needed to produce a bound cluster is 15%, which is twice smaller than earlier estimates of 33%. Thus we have improved the survival likelihood of young clusters after instantaneous gas expulsion. Those can now survive instantaneous gas expulsion with global SFEs as low as those observed for embedded clusters of Solar Neighbourhood (15-30%). This is the consequence of the star cluster having a density profile steeper than that of the residual gas. However, in terms of the effective SFE, measured by the virial ratio of the cluster at gas expulsion, our results are in agreement with previous studies.
Emission line diagnostic diagrams probing the ionization sources in galaxies, such as the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich (BPT) diagram, have been used extensively to distinguish AGN from purely star-forming galaxies. Yet, they remain poorly understood at higher redshifts. We shed light on this issue with an empirical approach based on a z~0 reference sample built from ~300,000 SDSS galaxies, from which we mimic selection effects due to typical emission line detection limits at higher redshift. We combine this low-redshift reference sample with a simple prescription for luminosity evolution of the global galaxy population to predict the loci of high-redshift galaxies on the BPT and Mass-Excitation (MEx) diagnostic diagrams. The predicted bivariate distributions agree remarkably well with direct observations of galaxies out to z~1.5, including the observed stellar mass-metallicity (MZ) relation evolution. As a result, we infer that high-redshift star-forming galaxies are consistent with having normal ISM properties out to z~1.5, after accounting for selection effects and line luminosity evolution. Namely, their optical line ratios and gas-phase metallicities are comparable to that of low-redshift galaxies with equivalent emission-line luminosities. In contrast, AGN narrow-line regions may show a shift toward lower metallicities at higher redshift. While a physical evolution of the ISM conditions is not ruled out for purely star-forming galaxies, and may be more important starting at z>2, we find that reliably quantifying this evolution is hindered by selections effects. The recipes provided here may serve as a basis for future studies toward this goal. Code to predict the loci of galaxies on the BPT and MEx diagnostic diagrams, and the MZ relation as a function of emission line luminosity limits, is made publicly available.