scholarly journals From young massive star clusters to old globulars: long-term survival chances

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S237) ◽  
pp. 408-408
Author(s):  
Richard de Grijs

Young, massive star clusters (YMCs) are the most notable and significant end products of violent star-forming episodes triggered by galaxy collisions and close encounters. The question remains, however, whether or not at least a fraction of the compact YMCs seen in abundance in extragalactic starbursts, are potentially the progenitors of (≳10 Gyr) old globular cluster (GC)-type objects. If we could settle this issue convincingly, one way or the other, the implications of such a result would have far-reaching implications for a wide range of astrophysical questions, including our understanding of the process of galaxy formation and assembly, and the process and conditions required for star (cluster) formation. Because of the lack of a statistically significant sample of YMCs in the Local Group, however, we need to resort to either statistical arguments or to the painstaking approach of case-by-case studies of individual objects in more distant galaxies.

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard de Grijs ◽  
Geneviève Parmentier

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (S246) ◽  
pp. 71-72
Author(s):  
J. Pflamm-Altenburg ◽  
P. Kroupa

AbstractThe existence of complex stellar populations in some star clusters challenges the understanding of star formation. E.g. the ONC or the sigma Orionis cluster host much older stars than the main bulk of the young stars. Massive star clusters (ω Cen, G1, M54) show metallicity spreads corresponding to different stellar populations with large age gaps. We show that (i) during star cluster formation field stars can be captured and (ii) very massive globular clusters can accrete gas from a long-term embedding inter stellar medium and restart star formation.


1996 ◽  
Vol 183 (6) ◽  
pp. 2523-2531 ◽  
Author(s):  
M López-Hoyos ◽  
R Carrió ◽  
R Merino ◽  
L Buelta ◽  
S Izui ◽  
...  

The bcl-2 protooncogene has been shown to provide a survival signal to self-reactive B cells, but it fails to override their developmental arrest after encounter with antigen. Furthermore, constitutive expression of bcl-2 in B cells does not promote the development of autoimmune disease in most strains of mice, indicating that signals other than those conferred by bcl-2 are required for long-term survival and differentiation of self-reactive B cells in vivo. To further examine the factors that are required for the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease, we have assessed the effect of bcl-2 overexpression on the development of host-versus-graft disease, a self-limited model of systemic autoimmune disease. In this model, injection of spleen cells from (C57BL/6 x BALB/c)F1 hybrid mice into BALB/c newborn parental mice induces immunological tolerance to donor tissues and activation of autoreactive F1 donor B cells through interactions provided by allogeneic host CD4+ T cells. BALB/c newborns injected with spleen cells from (C57BL/6 x BALB/c)F1 mice expressing a bcl-2 transgene in B cells developed high levels of anti-single-stranded DNA and a wide range of pathogenic autoantibodies that were not or barely detectable in mice injected with nontransgenic spleen cells. In mice injected with transgenic B cells, the levels of pathogenic autoantibodies remained high during the course of the study and were associated with long-term persistence of donor B cells, development of a severe autoimmune disease, and accelerated mortality. These results demonstrate that bcl-2 can provide survival signals for the maintenance and differentiation of autoreactive B cells, and suggest that both increased B cell survival and T cell help play critical roles in the development of certain forms of systemic autoimmune disease.


2002 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 94-104
Author(s):  
Eva K. Grebel

I summarize our knowledge of star clusters and associations in irregular galaxies other than the Magellanic Clouds in the Local Group. Surveys affording complete area coverage at high angular resolution are still lacking. Confirmed globular clusters are known only in NGC 6822 and WLM. Very few dIrrs contain populous or sparse open clusters. There is a pronounced deficiency of intermediate-age and young clusters. Apart from parent galaxy mass, the lack of interactions may be a key reason for the lack of cluster formation in the dIrrs. All dIrrs have one or several short-lived OB associations in the star-forming regions in their centers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (3) ◽  
pp. 3830-3845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajime Fukushima ◽  
Hidenobu Yajima ◽  
Kazuyuki Sugimura ◽  
Takashi Hosokawa ◽  
Kazuyuki Omukai ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We study star cluster formation in various environments with different metallicities and column densities by performing a suite of 3D radiation hydrodynamics simulations. We find that the photoionization feedback from massive stars controls the star formation efficiency (SFE) in a star-forming cloud, and its impact sensitively depends on the gas metallicity Z and initial cloud surface density Σ. At Z = 1 Z⊙, SFE increases as a power law from 0.03 at Σ = 10 M⊙ pc−2 to 0.3 at $\Sigma = 300\,\mathrm{M}_{\odot }\, {\rm pc^{-2}}$. In low-metallicity cases $10^{-2}\!-\!10^{-1}\, \mathrm{Z}_{\odot }$, star clusters form from atomic warm gases because the molecule formation time is not short enough with respect to the cooling or dynamical time. In addition, the whole cloud is disrupted more easily by expanding H ii bubbles that have higher temperature owing to less efficient cooling. With smaller dust attenuation, the ionizing radiation feedback from nearby massive stars is stronger and terminate star formation in dense clumps. These effects result in inefficient star formation in low-metallicity environments: the SFE drops by a factor of ∼3 at Z = 10−2 Z⊙ compared to the results for Z = 1 Z⊙, regardless of Σ. Newborn star clusters are also gravitationally less bound. We further develop a new semi-analytical model that can reproduce the simulation results well, particularly the observed dependencies of the SFEs on the cloud surface densities and metallicities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 496 (3) ◽  
pp. 3128-3141 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Rodríguez-Kamenetzky ◽  
C Carrasco-González ◽  
J M Torrelles ◽  
W H T Vlemmings ◽  
L F Rodríguez ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The massive star-forming region W75N (B) is thought to host a cluster of massive protostars (VLA 1, VLA 2, and VLA 3) undergoing different evolutionary stages. In this work, we present radio continuum data with the highest sensitivity and angular resolution obtained to date in this region, using the VLA-A and covering a wide range of frequencies (4–48 GHz), which allowed us to study the morphology and the nature of the emission of the different radio continuum sources. We also performed complementary studies with multi-epoch Very Large Array (VLA) data and Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) archive data at 1.3 mm wavelength. We find that VLA 1 is driving a thermal radio jet at scales of ≈0.1 arcsec (≈130 au), but also shows signs of an incipient hypercompact H ii region at scales of ≲1 arcsec (≲1300 au). VLA 3 is also driving a thermal radio jet at scales of a few tenths of arcsec (few hundred of au). We conclude that this jet is shock exciting the radio continuum sources Bc and VLA 4 (obscured Herbig–Haro objects), which show proper motions moving outward from VLA 3 at velocities of ≈112–118 km s−1. We have also detected three new weak radio continuum sources, two of them associated with millimetre continuum cores observed with ALMA, suggesting that these two sources are also embedded young stellar objects in this massive star-forming region.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S237) ◽  
pp. 230-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavel Kroupa

AbstractStar clusters are observed to form in a highly compact state and with low star-formation efficiencies, and only 10 per cent of all clusters appear to survive to middle- and old-dynamical age. If the residual gas is expelled on a dynamical time the clusters disrupt. Massive clusters may then feed a hot kinematical stellar component into their host-galaxy's field population thereby thickening galactic disks, a process that theories of galaxy formation and evolution need to accommodate. If the gas-evacuation time-scale depends on cluster mass, then a power-law embedded-cluster mass function may transform within a few dozen Myr to a mass function with a turnover near 105M, thereby possibly explaining this universal empirical feature. Discordant empirical evidence on the mass function of star clusters leads to the insight that the physical processes shaping early cluster evolution remain an issue of cutting-edge research.


2005 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 347-349
Author(s):  
Stephen E. Zepf

AbstractThis paper addresses the questions of what we have learned about how and when dense star clusters form, and what studies of star clusters have revealed about galaxy formation and evolution. One important observation is that globular clusters are observed to form in galaxy mergers and starbursts in the local universe, which both provides constraints on models of globular cluster formation, and suggests that similar physical conditions existed when most early-type galaxies and their globular clusters formed in the past. A second important observation is that globular cluster systems typically have bimodal color distributions. This was predicted by merger models, and indicates an episodic formation history for elliptical galaxies. A third and very recent result is the discovery of large populations of intermediate age globular clusters in several elliptical galaxies through the use of optical to near-infrared colors. These provide an important link between young cluster systems observed in starbursts and mergers and old cluster systems. This continuum of ages of the metal-rich globular cluster systems also indicates that there is no special age or epoch for the formation of the metal-rich globular clusters, which comprise about half of the cluster population. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of recent results on the globular cluster – low-mass X-ray binary connection.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S270) ◽  
pp. 381-384
Author(s):  
Oleg Y. Gnedin

AbstractModern hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation are able to predict accurately the rates and locations of the assembly of giant molecular clouds in early galaxies. These clouds could host star clusters with the masses and sizes of real globular clusters. I describe current state-of-the-art simulations aimed at understanding the origin of the cluster mass function and metallicity distribution. Metallicity bimodality of globular cluster systems appears to be a natural outcome of hierarchical formation and gradually declining fraction of cold gas in galaxies. Globular cluster formation was most prominent at redshifts z > 3, when massive star clusters may have contributed as much as 20% of all galactic star formation.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document