The Timescales of Star Cluster Emergence: The Case of NGC 4449

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: McQuaid, Timothy, Calzetti, Daniela, Linden, Sean T., Messa, Matteo, Adamo, Angela, Elmegreen, Bruce, Grasha, Kathryn, Johnson, Kelsey E., Smith, Linda J., Bajaj, Varun
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author McQuaid, Timothy
Calzetti, Daniela
Linden, Sean T.
Messa, Matteo
Adamo, Angela
Elmegreen, Bruce
Grasha, Kathryn
Johnson, Kelsey E.
Smith, Linda J.
Bajaj, Varun
author_facet McQuaid, Timothy
Calzetti, Daniela
Linden, Sean T.
Messa, Matteo
Adamo, Angela
Elmegreen, Bruce
Grasha, Kathryn
Johnson, Kelsey E.
Smith, Linda J.
Bajaj, Varun
contents We survey the young star cluster population in the dwarf galaxy NGC4449 with the goal of investigating how stellar feedback may depend on the clusters' properties. Using Ultraviolet(UV)-optical-NearIR(NIR) photometry obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope, we have recovered 99 compact sources exhibiting emission in the Pa$β$ hydrogen recombination line. Our analysis reveals these sources possess masses $10^{2}<M_{\odot}<10^{5}$, ages 1-20 Myr, and color excess E(B - V) in the range 0-1.4. After selecting clusters with mass above 3,000M$_{\odot}$ to mitigate stochastic sampling of the stellar initial mass function, we find that our IR-selected clusters have a median mass of $\sim$7$\times{10^{3}\text{ M}_{\odot}}$ and remain embedded in their surrounding gas and dust for 5-6 Myr. In contrast, line-emitting sources selected from existing UV/optically catalogs have a median mass of $\sim$3.5$\times{10^{4}\text{ M}_{\odot}}$ and have cleared their surroundings by 4 Myr. We further find that the environment in NGC4449 is too low pressure to drive these differences. We interpret these findings as evidence that the clearing timescale from pre-supernova and supernova feedback is cluster mass-dependent. Even in clusters with mass$\sim$7,000~M$_{\odot}$, stochastic sampling of the upper end of the stellar initial mass function is present, randomly decreasing the number of massive stars available to inject energy and momentum into the surrounding medium. This effect may increase the clearing timescales in these clusters by decreasing the effectiveness of both pre-supernova and supernova feedback; neither models nor observations have so far explored such dependence explicitly. Future studies and observations with, e.g., the JWST, will fill this gap.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_09112
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Timescales of Star Cluster Emergence: The Case of NGC 4449
McQuaid, Timothy
Calzetti, Daniela
Linden, Sean T.
Messa, Matteo
Adamo, Angela
Elmegreen, Bruce
Grasha, Kathryn
Johnson, Kelsey E.
Smith, Linda J.
Bajaj, Varun
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We survey the young star cluster population in the dwarf galaxy NGC4449 with the goal of investigating how stellar feedback may depend on the clusters' properties. Using Ultraviolet(UV)-optical-NearIR(NIR) photometry obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope, we have recovered 99 compact sources exhibiting emission in the Pa$β$ hydrogen recombination line. Our analysis reveals these sources possess masses $10^{2}<M_{\odot}<10^{5}$, ages 1-20 Myr, and color excess E(B - V) in the range 0-1.4. After selecting clusters with mass above 3,000M$_{\odot}$ to mitigate stochastic sampling of the stellar initial mass function, we find that our IR-selected clusters have a median mass of $\sim$7$\times{10^{3}\text{ M}_{\odot}}$ and remain embedded in their surrounding gas and dust for 5-6 Myr. In contrast, line-emitting sources selected from existing UV/optically catalogs have a median mass of $\sim$3.5$\times{10^{4}\text{ M}_{\odot}}$ and have cleared their surroundings by 4 Myr. We further find that the environment in NGC4449 is too low pressure to drive these differences. We interpret these findings as evidence that the clearing timescale from pre-supernova and supernova feedback is cluster mass-dependent. Even in clusters with mass$\sim$7,000~M$_{\odot}$, stochastic sampling of the upper end of the stellar initial mass function is present, randomly decreasing the number of massive stars available to inject energy and momentum into the surrounding medium. This effect may increase the clearing timescales in these clusters by decreasing the effectiveness of both pre-supernova and supernova feedback; neither models nor observations have so far explored such dependence explicitly. Future studies and observations with, e.g., the JWST, will fill this gap.
title The Timescales of Star Cluster Emergence: The Case of NGC 4449
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.09112