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Register a new userThe Arches cluster revisited. III. An addendum to the stellar census
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The Arches is one of the youngest, densest and most massive clusters in the Galaxy. As such it provides a unique insight into the lifecycle of the most massive stars known and the formation and survival of such stellar aggregates in the extreme conditions of the Galactic Centre. In a previous study we presented an initial stellar census for the Arches and in this work we expand upon this, providing new and revised classifications for ~30% of the 105 spectroscopically identified cluster members as well as distinguishing potential massive runaways. The results of this survey emphasise the homogeneity and apparent co-evality of the Arches and confirm the absence of H-free Wolf-Rayets of WC sub-type and predicted luminosities. The increased depth of our complete dataset also provides significantly better constraints on the main sequence population; with the identification of O9.5 V stars for the first time we now spectroscopically sample stars with initial masses ranging from ~16Msun to >120Msun. Indeed, following from our expanded stellar census we might expect >50 stars within the Arches to have been born with masses >60Msun, while all 105 spectroscopically confirmed cluster members are massive enough to leave relativistic remnants upon their demise. Moreover the well defined observational properties of the main sequence cohort will be critical to the construction of an extinction law appropriate for the Galactic Centre and consequently the quantitative analysis of the Arches population and subsequent determination of the cluster initial mass function.
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We have carried out a spectroscopic variability survey of some of the most massive stars in the Arches cluster, using K-band observations obtained with SINFONI on the VLT. One target, F2, exhibits substantial changes in radial velocity; in combination with new KMOS and archival SINFONI spectra, its primary component is found to undergo radial velocity variation with a period of 10.483+/-0.002 d and an amplitude of ~350 km/s. A secondary radial velocity curve is also marginally detectable. We reanalyse archival NAOS-CONICA photometric survey data in combination with our radial velocity results to confirm this object as an eclipsing SB2 system, and the first binary identified in the Arches. We model it as consisting of an 82+/-12 M_sun WN8-9h primary and a 60+/-8 M_sun O5-6 Ia+ secondary, and as having a slightly eccentric orbit, implying an evolutionary stage prior to strong binary interaction. As one of four X-ray bright Arches sources previously proposed as colliding-wind massive binaries, it may be only the first of several binaries to be discovered in this cluster, presenting potential challenges to recent models for the Arches age and composition. It also appears to be one of the most massive binaries detected to date; the primarys calculated initial mass of >~120 M_sun would arguably make this the most massive binary known in the Galaxy.
Massive stars and their stellar winds are important for a number of feedback processes. The mass lost in the stellar wind can help determine the end-point of the star as a NS or a BH. However, the impact of mass-loss on the post-Main Sequence evolutionary stage of massive stars is not well understood. Westerlund 1 is an ideal astrophysical laboratory in which to study massive stars and their winds in great detail over a large range of different evolutionary phases. Aims: We aim to study the radio emission from Westerlund 1, in order to measure radio fluxes from the population of massive stars, and determine mass-loss rates and spectral indices where possible. Methods: Observations were carried out in 2015 and 2016 with the Australia telescope compact array (ATCA) at 5.5 and 9 GHz using multiple configurations, with maximum baselines ranging from 750m to 6km. Results: 30 stars were detected in the radio from the fully concatenated dataset, 10 of which were WRs (predominantly late type WN stars), 5 YHGs, 4 RSGs, 1 LBV star, the sgB[e] star W9, and several O and B supergiants. New source detections in the radio were found for 5 WR stars, and 5 OB supergiants. These detections have led to evidence for 3 new OB supergiant binary candidates, inferred from derived spectral index limits. Conclusions: Spectral indices and index limits were determined for massive stars in Westerlund 1. For cluster members found to have partially optically thick emission, mass-loss rates were calculated. Under the approximation of a thermally emitting stellar wind and a steady mass-loss rate, clumping ratios were then estimated for 8 WRs. Diffuse radio emission was detected throughout the cluster. Detections of knots of radio emission with no known stellar counterparts indicate the highly clumped structure of this intra-cluster medium, likely shaped by a dense cluster wind.
We study the dynamical evolution of the young star cluster Arches and its dependence on the assumed initial stellar mass function (IMF). We perform many direct $N$-body simulations with various initial conditions and two different choices of IMFs. One is a standard Kroupa IMF without any mass segregation. The other is a radially dependent IMF, as presently observed in the Arches. We find that it is unlikely for the Arches to have attained the observed degree of mass segregation at its current age starting from a standard non-segregated Kroupa IMF. We also study the possibility of a collisional runaway developing in the first $sim 2-3 rm{Myr}$ of dynamical evolution. We find that the evolution of this cluster is dramatically different depending on the choice of IMF: if a primordially mass segregated IMF is chosen, a collisional runaway should always occur between $2-3 rm{Myr}$ for a broad range of initial concentrations. In contrast, for a standard Kroupa IMF no collisional runaway is predicted. We argue that if Arches was created with a mass segregated IMF similar to what is observed today then at the current cluster age a very unusual, high-mass star should be created. However, whether a collisional runaway leads to the formation of an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) depends strongly on the mass loss rate via winds from massive stars. Growth of stellar mass through collisions can be quenched by strong wind mass loss. In that case, the inter-cluster as well as intra-cluster medium are expected to have a significant Helium enrichment which may be observed via Helium recombination lines. The excess amount of gas lost in winds may also be observed via X-ray observations as diffused X-ray sources.
The Galactic center is the most active site of star formation in the Milky Way Galaxy, where particularly high-mass stars have formed very recently and are still forming today. However, since we are looking at the Galactic center through the Galactic disk, knowledge of extinction is crucial when studying this region. The Arches cluster is a young, massive starburst cluster near the Galactic center. We observed the Arches cluster out to its tidal radius using Ks-band imaging obtained with NAOS/CONICA at the VLT combined with Subaro/Cisco J-band data to gain a full understanding of the cluster mass distribution. We show that the determination of the mass of the most massive star in the Arches cluster, which had been used in previous studies to establish an upper mass limit for the star formation process in the Milky Way, strongly depends on the assumed slope of the extinction law. Assuming the two regimes of widely used infrared extinction laws, we show that the difference can reach up to 30% for individually derived stellar masses and Delta AKs ~ 1 magnitude in acquired Ks-band extinction, while the present-day mass function slope changes by ~ 0.17 dex. The present-day mass function slope derived assuming the more recent extinction law increases from a flat slope of alpha_{Nishi}=-1.50 pm0.35 in the core (r<0.2 pc) to alpha_{Nishi}=-2.21 pm0.27 in the intermediate annulus (0.2 <r<0.4 pc), where the Salpeter slope is -2.3. The mass function steepens to alpha_{Nishi}=-3.21 pm0.30 in the outer annulus (0.4<r<1.5 pc), indicating that the outer cluster region is depleted of high-mass stars. This picture is consistent with mass segregation owing to the dynamical evolution of the cluster.
This paper continues our study of the foreground population to the Orion molecular clouds. The goal is to characterize the foreground population north of NGC 1981 and to investigate the star formation history in the large Orion star-forming region. We focus on a region covering about 25 square degrees, centered on the $epsilon$ Orionis supergiant (HD 37128, B0,Ia) and covering the Orion Belt asterism. We used a combination of optical (SDSS) and near-infrared (2MASS) data, informed by X-ray (textit{XMM-Newton}) and mid-infrared (WISE) data, to construct a suite of color-color and color-magnitude diagrams for all available sources. We then applied a new statistical multiband technique to isolate a previously unknown stellar population in this region. We identify a rich and well-defined stellar population in the surveyed region that has about 2,000 objects that are mostly M stars. We infer the age for this new population to be at least 5, Myr and likely $sim10$,Myr and estimate a total of about 2,500 members, assuming a normal IMF. This new population, which we call the Orion Belt population, is essentially extinction-free, disk-free, and its spatial distribution is roughly centered near $epsilon$ Ori, although substructure is clearly present. The Orion Belt population is likely the low-mass counterpart to the Ori OB Ib subgroup. Although our results do not rule out Blaauws sequential star formation scenario for Orion, we argue that the recently proposed blue streams scenario provides a better framework on which one can explain the Orion star formation region as a whole. We speculate that the Orion Belt population could represent the evolved counterpart of an Orion nebula-like cluster.
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