scholarly journals The effect of photoionizing feedback on the shaping of hierarchically-forming stellar clusters

2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (1) ◽  
pp. 668-680
Author(s):  
Alejandro González-Samaniego ◽  
Enrique Vazquez-Semadeni

ABSTRACT We use two hydrodynamical simulations (with and without photoionizing feedback) of the self-consistent evolution of molecular clouds (MCs) undergoing global hierarchical collapse (GHC), to study the effect of the feedback on the structural and kinematic properties of the gas and the stellar clusters formed in the clouds. During this early stage, the evolution of the two simulations is very similar (implying that the feedback from low-mass stars does not affect the cloud-scale evolution significantly) and the star-forming region accretes faster than it can convert gas into stars, causing the instantaneous measured star formation efficiency (SFE) to remain low even in the absence of significant feedback. Afterwards, the ionizing feedback first destroys the filamentary supply to star-forming hubs and ultimately removes the gas from it, thus first reducing the star formation (SF) and finally halting it. The ionizing feedback also affects the initial kinematics and spatial distribution of the forming stars because the gas being dispersed continues to form stars, which inherit its motion. In the non-feedback simulation, the groups remain highly compact and do not mix, while in the run with feedback, the gas dispersal causes each group to expand, and the cluster expansion thus consists of the combined expansion of the groups. Most secondary star-forming sites around the main hub are also present in the non-feedback run, implying a primordial rather than triggered nature. We do find one example of a peripheral star-forming site that appears only in the feedback run, thus having a triggered origin. However, this appears to be the exception rather than the rule, although this may be an artefact of our simplified radiative transfer scheme.

1997 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 537-549
Author(s):  
T. W. Hartquist ◽  
J. E. Dyson

Structures like the clumps identified in the CO maps of the Rosette Molecular Cloud and the dense cores such as those in B5, a cluster of cores and young low-mass stars, are key to considerations of star formation. Whether star formation is a self-inducing process or one that causes itself to turn off depends greatly on whether the responses of the interclump and intercore media to young stars cause the collapse of clumps or cores to be faster than their ablation. We present a naive introduction to the lengthscales over which such responses are significant, mention ways in which the responses might induce collapse, review some of the little that is known of how flows of media around clumps and cores ablate them, and then return to the issue of the lengthscales over which such responses are significant by considering the global properties of mass-loaded flows in clumpy star forming regions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 619 ◽  
pp. A27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leindert A. Boogaard ◽  
Jarle Brinchmann ◽  
Nicolas Bouché ◽  
Mieke Paalvast ◽  
Roland Bacon ◽  
...  

Star-forming galaxies have been found to follow a relatively tight relation between stellar mass (M*) and star formation rate (SFR), dubbed the “star formation sequence”. A turnover in the sequence has been observed, where galaxies with M* <  1010 M⊙ follow a steeper relation than their higher mass counterparts, suggesting that the low-mass slope is (nearly) linear. In this paper, we characterise the properties of the low-mass end of the star formation sequence between 7 ≤ log M*[M⊙]  ≤  10.5 at redshift 0.11 <  z  <   0.91. We use the deepest MUSE observations of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and the Hubble Deep Field South to construct a sample of 179 star-forming galaxies with high signal-to-noise emission lines. Dust-corrected SFRs are determined from Hβ λ4861 and Hα λ6563. We model the star formation sequence with a Gaussian distribution around a hyperplane between logM*, logSFR, and log(1 + z), to simultaneously constrain the slope, redshift evolution, and intrinsic scatter. We find a sub-linear slope for the low-mass regime where log SFR [M⊙yr−1] = 0.83+0.07−0.06 log M*[M⊙]+1.74+0.66−0.68 log(1 + z), increasing with redshift. We recover an intrinsic scatter in the relation of σintr = 0.44+0.05−0.04, dex, larger than typically found at higher masses. As both hydrodynamical simulations and (semi-)analytical models typically favour a steeper slope in the low-mass regime, our results provide new constraints on the feedback processes which operate preferentially in low-mass halos.


2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (2) ◽  
pp. 2851-2860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunmyon Chon ◽  
Kazuyuki Omukai

ABSTRACT Direct collapse black hole (DCBH) formation with mass ≳105 M⊙ is a promising scenario for the origin of high-redshift supermassive black holes. It has usually been supposed that the DCBH can only form in the primordial gas since the metal enrichment enhances the cooling ability and causes the fragmentation into smaller pieces. What actually happens in such an environment, however, has not been explored in detail. Here, we study the impact of the metal enrichment on the clouds, conducting hydrodynamical simulations to follow the cloud evolution in cases with different degree of the metal enrichment Z/Z⊙ = 10−6 to 10−3. Below Z/Z⊙ = 10−6, metallicity has no effect and supermassive stars form along with a small number of low-mass stars. With more metallicity $Z/\mathrm{ Z}_{\odot } \gtrsim5 \times 10^{-6}$, although the dust cooling indeed promotes fragmentation of the cloud core and produces about a few thousand low-mass stars, the accreting flow preferentially feeds the gas to the central massive stars, which grows supermassive as in the primordial case. We term this formation mode as the super competitive accretion, where only the central few stars grow supermassive while a large number of other stars are competing for the gas reservoir. Once the metallicity exceeds 10−3 Z⊙ and metal-line cooling becomes operative, the central star cannot grow supermassive due to lowered accretion rate. Supermassive star formation by the super competitive accretion opens up a new window for seed BHs, which relaxes the condition on metallicity and enhances the seed BH abundance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (2) ◽  
pp. 1508-1520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin P Rey ◽  
Andrew Pontzen ◽  
Oscar Agertz ◽  
Matthew D A Orkney ◽  
Justin I Read ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We study how star formation is regulated in low-mass field dwarf galaxies ($10^5 \le M_{\star } \le 10^6 \, \mbox{M}_\mathrm{\odot }$), using cosmological high-resolution ($3 \, \mathrm{pc}$) hydrodynamical simulations. Cosmic reionization quenches star formation in all our simulated dwarfs, but three galaxies with final dynamical masses of $3 \times 10^{9} \, \mbox{M}_\mathrm{\odot }$ are subsequently able to replenish their interstellar medium by slowly accreting gas. Two of these galaxies reignite and sustain star formation until the present day at an average rate of $10^{-5} \, \mbox{M}_\mathrm{\odot } \, \text{yr}^{-1}$, highly reminiscent of observed low-mass star-forming dwarf irregulars such as Leo T. The resumption of star formation is delayed by several billion years due to residual feedback from stellar winds and Type Ia supernovae; even at z = 0, the third galaxy remains in a temporary equilibrium with a large gas content but without any ongoing star formation. Using the ‘genetic modification’ approach, we create an alternative mass growth history for this gas-rich quiescent dwarf and show how a small $(0.2\, \mathrm{dex})$ increase in dynamical mass can overcome residual stellar feedback, reigniting star formation. The interaction between feedback and mass build-up produces a diversity in the stellar ages and gas content of low-mass dwarfs, which will be probed by combining next-generation H i and imaging surveys.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S255) ◽  
pp. 330-335
Author(s):  
Yutaka Komiya ◽  
Takuma Suda ◽  
Asao Habe ◽  
Masayuki Fujimoto

AbstractExtremely metal-poor (EMP) stars are thought to be formed in the low-mass protogalaxies as building blocks of the Milky Way and can be probes to investigate the early stage of galaxy formation and star formation in the early universe. We study the formation history of EMP stars in the Milky Way halo using a new model of chemical evolution based on the hierarchical theory of the galaxy formation. We construct the merging history of the Milky Way halo based on the extended Press-Schechter formalism, and follow the star formation and chemical evolution along the merger tree. The abundance trends and number of low-mass stars predicted in our model are compared with those of observed EMP stars. Additionally, in order to clarify the origin of hyper metal poor stars, we investigate the change of the surface metal abundances of stars by accretion of interstellar matter. We also investigate the pre-enrichment of intergalactic matter by the first supernovae.


2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (2) ◽  
pp. 1803-1822
Author(s):  
Seunghwan Lim ◽  
Douglas Scott ◽  
Arif Babul ◽  
David J Barnes ◽  
Scott T Kay ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT As progenitors of the most massive objects, protoclusters are key to tracing the evolution and star formation history of the Universe, and are responsible for ${\gtrsim }\, 20$ per cent of the cosmic star formation at $z\, {\gt }\, 2$. Using a combination of state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations and empirical models, we show that current galaxy formation models do not produce enough star formation in protoclusters to match observations. We find that the star formation rates (SFRs) predicted from the models are an order of magnitude lower than what is seen in observations, despite the relatively good agreement found for their mass-accretion histories, specifically that they lie on an evolutionary path to become Coma-like clusters at $z\, {\simeq }\, 0$. Using a well-studied protocluster core at $z\, {=}\, 4.3$ as a test case, we find that star formation efficiency of protocluster galaxies is higher than predicted by the models. We show that a large part of the discrepancy can be attributed to a dependence of SFR on the numerical resolution of the simulations, with a roughly factor of 3 drop in SFR when the spatial resolution decreases by a factor of 4. We also present predictions up to $z\, {\simeq }\, 7$. Compared to lower redshifts, we find that centrals (the most massive member galaxies) are more distinct from the other galaxies, while protocluster galaxies are less distinct from field galaxies. All these results suggest that, as a rare and extreme population at high z, protoclusters can help constrain galaxy formation models tuned to match the average population at $z\, {\simeq }\, 0$.


2002 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 143-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee G. Mundy ◽  
Friedrich Wyrowski ◽  
Sarah Watt

Millimeter and submillimeter wavelength images of massive star-forming regions are uncovering the natal material distribution and revealing the complexities of their circumstellar environments on size scales from parsecs to 100’s of AU. Progress in these areas has been slower than for low-mass stars because massive stars are more distant, and because they are gregarious siblings with different evolutionary stages that can co-exist even within a core. Nevertheless, observational goals for the near future include the characterization of an early evolutionary sequence for massive stars, determination if the accretion process and formation sequence for massive stars is similar to that of low-mass stars, and understanding of the role of triggering events in massive star formation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S270) ◽  
pp. 103-106
Author(s):  
R. Rao ◽  
J.-M. Girart ◽  
D. P. Marrone

AbstractThere have been a number of theoretical and computational models which state that magnetic fields play an important role in the process of star formation. Competing theories instead postulate that it is turbulence which is dominant and magnetic fields are weak. The recent installation of a polarimetry system at the Submillimeter Array (SMA) has enabled us to conduct observations that could potentially distinguish between the two theories. Some of the nearby low mass star forming regions show hour-glass shaped magnetic field structures that are consistent with theoretical models in which the magnetic field plays a dominant role. However, there are other similar regions where no significant polarization is detected. Future polarimetry observations made by the Submillimeter Array should be able to increase the sample of observed regions. These measurements will allow us to address observationally the important question of the role of magnetic fields and/or turbulence in the process of star formation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 624 ◽  
pp. A137 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Haemmerlé ◽  
P. Eggenberger ◽  
S. Ekström ◽  
C. Georgy ◽  
G. Meynet ◽  
...  

Grids of stellar models are useful tools to derive the properties of stellar clusters, in particular young clusters hosting massive stars, and to provide information on the star formation process in various mass ranges. Because of their short evolutionary timescale, massive stars end their life while their low-mass siblings are still on the pre-main sequence (pre-MS) phase. Thus the study of young clusters requires consistent consideration of all the phases of stellar evolution. But despite the large number of grids that are available in the literature, a grid accounting for the evolution from the pre-MS accretion phase to the post-MS phase in the whole stellar mass range is still lacking. We build a grid of stellar models at solar metallicity with masses from 0.8 M⊙ to 120 M⊙, including pre-MS phase with accretion. We use the GENEC code to run stellar models on this mass range. The accretion law is chosen to match the observations of pre-MS objects on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. We describe the evolutionary tracks and isochrones of our models. The grid is connected to previous MS and post-MS grids computed with the same numerical method and physical assumptions, which provides the widest grid in mass and age to date.


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