Where do stars explode in the ISM? -- The distribution of dense gas around evolved massive stars in M33

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sarbadhicary, Sumit K., Wagner, Jordan, Koch, Eric W., Chen, Ness Mayker, Leroy, Adam K., Lahén, Natalia, Rosolowsky, Erik, Neugent, Kathryn F., Kim, Chang-Goo, Chomiuk, Laura, Dalcanton, Julianne J., Lopez, Laura A., Pingel, Nickolas M., Indebetouw, Remy, Williams, Thomas G., Tarantino, Elizabeth, Meyer, Jennifer Donovan, Skillman, Evan D., Smercina, Adam, Kepley, Amanda A., Murphy, Eric J., Strader, Jay, Wong, Tony, Stanimirović, Snežana, Villanueva, Vicente, Walter, Fabian, Ott, Juergen, Darling, Jeremy, Roman-Duval, Julia, Murray, Claire E.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Sarbadhicary, Sumit K.
Wagner, Jordan
Koch, Eric W.
Chen, Ness Mayker
Leroy, Adam K.
Lahén, Natalia
Rosolowsky, Erik
Neugent, Kathryn F.
Kim, Chang-Goo
Chomiuk, Laura
Dalcanton, Julianne J.
Lopez, Laura A.
Pingel, Nickolas M.
Indebetouw, Remy
Williams, Thomas G.
Tarantino, Elizabeth
Meyer, Jennifer Donovan
Skillman, Evan D.
Smercina, Adam
Kepley, Amanda A.
Murphy, Eric J.
Strader, Jay
Wong, Tony
Stanimirović, Snežana
Villanueva, Vicente
Walter, Fabian
Ott, Juergen
Darling, Jeremy
Roman-Duval, Julia
Murray, Claire E.
author_facet Sarbadhicary, Sumit K.
Wagner, Jordan
Koch, Eric W.
Chen, Ness Mayker
Leroy, Adam K.
Lahén, Natalia
Rosolowsky, Erik
Neugent, Kathryn F.
Kim, Chang-Goo
Chomiuk, Laura
Dalcanton, Julianne J.
Lopez, Laura A.
Pingel, Nickolas M.
Indebetouw, Remy
Williams, Thomas G.
Tarantino, Elizabeth
Meyer, Jennifer Donovan
Skillman, Evan D.
Smercina, Adam
Kepley, Amanda A.
Murphy, Eric J.
Strader, Jay
Wong, Tony
Stanimirović, Snežana
Villanueva, Vicente
Walter, Fabian
Ott, Juergen
Darling, Jeremy
Roman-Duval, Julia
Murray, Claire E.
contents The effect of supernovae (SNe) on star-formation in the interstellar medium (ISM) depends sensitively on where SNe explode with respect to ISM clouds. Observationally, SN ISM environments characterized by spatially-resolved gas maps can empirically guide the placement of SNe in subgrid models, but unfortunately such measurements remain scarce, as SNe are rare and often distant. Here we demonstrate a new approach -- mapping the ISM around evolved massive stars that are soon to explode. These provide a substantially larger sample of `explosion sites' (than just historical SNe) in nearby galaxies that have high-resolution atomic and molecular ISM maps from Jansky VLA and ALMA. We demonstrate this technique in the well-resolved Local Group spiral M33 by analyzing the 50 pc-scale projected ISM densities around red supergiants (RSGs, 8-30 M$_{\odot}$ stars) Wolf-Rayet stars (WRs, $>$30 M$_{\odot}$ stars), and supernova remnants (SNRs). We find a \emph{mass-dependent} correlation between stars and gas clouds, with atleast 45\% of WRs and upto 77\% of RSGs having no detectable H$_2$ at their pixel locations. In the sample with H$_2$ detections, we find that more massive younger progenitors are coincident with denser gas. We show that the density distributions for stars $>$15 M$_{\odot}$ are statistically distinct from random alignment of stars and gas in M33. Our work provides the first observationally-derived estimate of the fraction of the SN-producing stellar population correlated with ISM density peaks. We demonstrate how this can be compared with galaxy simulations, and advocate similar comparisons to the community for constraining sub-grid models.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_17694
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Where do stars explode in the ISM? -- The distribution of dense gas around evolved massive stars in M33
Sarbadhicary, Sumit K.
Wagner, Jordan
Koch, Eric W.
Chen, Ness Mayker
Leroy, Adam K.
Lahén, Natalia
Rosolowsky, Erik
Neugent, Kathryn F.
Kim, Chang-Goo
Chomiuk, Laura
Dalcanton, Julianne J.
Lopez, Laura A.
Pingel, Nickolas M.
Indebetouw, Remy
Williams, Thomas G.
Tarantino, Elizabeth
Meyer, Jennifer Donovan
Skillman, Evan D.
Smercina, Adam
Kepley, Amanda A.
Murphy, Eric J.
Strader, Jay
Wong, Tony
Stanimirović, Snežana
Villanueva, Vicente
Walter, Fabian
Ott, Juergen
Darling, Jeremy
Roman-Duval, Julia
Murray, Claire E.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The effect of supernovae (SNe) on star-formation in the interstellar medium (ISM) depends sensitively on where SNe explode with respect to ISM clouds. Observationally, SN ISM environments characterized by spatially-resolved gas maps can empirically guide the placement of SNe in subgrid models, but unfortunately such measurements remain scarce, as SNe are rare and often distant. Here we demonstrate a new approach -- mapping the ISM around evolved massive stars that are soon to explode. These provide a substantially larger sample of `explosion sites' (than just historical SNe) in nearby galaxies that have high-resolution atomic and molecular ISM maps from Jansky VLA and ALMA. We demonstrate this technique in the well-resolved Local Group spiral M33 by analyzing the 50 pc-scale projected ISM densities around red supergiants (RSGs, 8-30 M$_{\odot}$ stars) Wolf-Rayet stars (WRs, $>$30 M$_{\odot}$ stars), and supernova remnants (SNRs). We find a \emph{mass-dependent} correlation between stars and gas clouds, with atleast 45\% of WRs and upto 77\% of RSGs having no detectable H$_2$ at their pixel locations. In the sample with H$_2$ detections, we find that more massive younger progenitors are coincident with denser gas. We show that the density distributions for stars $>$15 M$_{\odot}$ are statistically distinct from random alignment of stars and gas in M33. Our work provides the first observationally-derived estimate of the fraction of the SN-producing stellar population correlated with ISM density peaks. We demonstrate how this can be compared with galaxy simulations, and advocate similar comparisons to the community for constraining sub-grid models.
title Where do stars explode in the ISM? -- The distribution of dense gas around evolved massive stars in M33
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.17694