FEAST: JWST uncovers the emerging timescales of young star clusters in M83

Fuente: arXiv

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Knutas, Alice, Adamo, Angela, Pedrini, Alex, Linden, Sean T., Bajaj, Varun, Ryon, Jenna E., Gregg, Benjamin, Ali, Ahmad A., Andersson, Eric P., Bik, Arjan, Bortolini, Giacomo, Buckner, Anne S. M., Calzetti, Daniela, Duarte-Cabral, Ana, Elmegreen, Bruce G., Vieira, Helena Faustino, Gallagher, John S., Grasha, Kathryn, Johnson, Kelsey, Lai, Thomas S. -Y., Lapeer, Drew, Messa, Matteo, Östlin, Göran, Sabbi, Elena, Smith, Linda J., Tosi, Monica
Format:	Preprint
Published:	2025
Subjects:	Astrophysics of Galaxies
Online Access:	Acceder al recurso
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_version_	1866909609512402944
author	Knutas, Alice Adamo, Angela Pedrini, Alex Linden, Sean T. Bajaj, Varun Ryon, Jenna E. Gregg, Benjamin Ali, Ahmad A. Andersson, Eric P. Bik, Arjan Bortolini, Giacomo Buckner, Anne S. M. Calzetti, Daniela Duarte-Cabral, Ana Elmegreen, Bruce G. Vieira, Helena Faustino Gallagher, John S. Grasha, Kathryn Johnson, Kelsey Lai, Thomas S. -Y. Lapeer, Drew Messa, Matteo Östlin, Göran Sabbi, Elena Smith, Linda J. Tosi, Monica
author_facet	Knutas, Alice Adamo, Angela Pedrini, Alex Linden, Sean T. Bajaj, Varun Ryon, Jenna E. Gregg, Benjamin Ali, Ahmad A. Andersson, Eric P. Bik, Arjan Bortolini, Giacomo Buckner, Anne S. M. Calzetti, Daniela Duarte-Cabral, Ana Elmegreen, Bruce G. Vieira, Helena Faustino Gallagher, John S. Grasha, Kathryn Johnson, Kelsey Lai, Thomas S. -Y. Lapeer, Drew Messa, Matteo Östlin, Göran Sabbi, Elena Smith, Linda J. Tosi, Monica
contents	We present JWST NIRCam observations of the emerging young star clusters (eYSCs) detected in the nearby spiral galaxy M83. The NIRcam mosaic encompasses the nuclear starburst, the bar, and the inner spiral arms. The eYSCs, detected in Pa$α$ and Br$α$ maps, have been largely missed in previous optical campaigns of young star clusters (YSCs). We distinguish between eYSCI, if they also have compact 3.3~$μ$m PAH emission associated to them, and eYSCII, if they only appear as compact Pa$α$ emitters. We find that the variations in the 3.3~$μ$m PAH feature are consistent with an evolutionary sequence where eYSCI evolve into eYSCII and then optical YSCs. This sequence is clear in the F300M-F335M (tracing the excess in the \PAHlambda\ feature) and the F115W-F187N (tracing the excess in Pa$α$) colors which become increasingly bluer as clusters emerge. The central starburst stands out as the region where the most massive eYSCs are currently forming in the galaxy. We estimate that only about 20~\% of the eYSCs will remain detectable as compact YSCs. Combining eYSCs and YSCs ($\leq$10 Myr) we recover an average clearing timescale of 6~Myr in which clusters transition from embedded to fully exposed. We see evidence of shorter emergence timescales ($\sim$5~Myr) for more massive ($>5\times10^3$ \msun) clusters, while star clusters of $\sim 10^3$ \msun\ about 7~Myr. We estimate that eYSCs remain associated to the \PAHlambda\ emission 3--4~Myr. Larger samples of eYSC and YSC populations will provide stronger statistics to further test environmental and cluster mass dependencies on the emergence timescale.
format	Preprint
id	arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_08874
institution	arXiv
publishDate	2025
record_format	arxiv
spellingShingle	FEAST: JWST uncovers the emerging timescales of young star clusters in M83 Knutas, Alice Adamo, Angela Pedrini, Alex Linden, Sean T. Bajaj, Varun Ryon, Jenna E. Gregg, Benjamin Ali, Ahmad A. Andersson, Eric P. Bik, Arjan Bortolini, Giacomo Buckner, Anne S. M. Calzetti, Daniela Duarte-Cabral, Ana Elmegreen, Bruce G. Vieira, Helena Faustino Gallagher, John S. Grasha, Kathryn Johnson, Kelsey Lai, Thomas S. -Y. Lapeer, Drew Messa, Matteo Östlin, Göran Sabbi, Elena Smith, Linda J. Tosi, Monica Astrophysics of Galaxies We present JWST NIRCam observations of the emerging young star clusters (eYSCs) detected in the nearby spiral galaxy M83. The NIRcam mosaic encompasses the nuclear starburst, the bar, and the inner spiral arms. The eYSCs, detected in Pa$α$ and Br$α$ maps, have been largely missed in previous optical campaigns of young star clusters (YSCs). We distinguish between eYSCI, if they also have compact 3.3~$μ$m PAH emission associated to them, and eYSCII, if they only appear as compact Pa$α$ emitters. We find that the variations in the 3.3~$μ$m PAH feature are consistent with an evolutionary sequence where eYSCI evolve into eYSCII and then optical YSCs. This sequence is clear in the F300M-F335M (tracing the excess in the \PAHlambda\ feature) and the F115W-F187N (tracing the excess in Pa$α$) colors which become increasingly bluer as clusters emerge. The central starburst stands out as the region where the most massive eYSCs are currently forming in the galaxy. We estimate that only about 20~\% of the eYSCs will remain detectable as compact YSCs. Combining eYSCs and YSCs ($\leq$10 Myr) we recover an average clearing timescale of 6~Myr in which clusters transition from embedded to fully exposed. We see evidence of shorter emergence timescales ($\sim$5~Myr) for more massive ($>5\times10^3$ \msun) clusters, while star clusters of $\sim 10^3$ \msun\ about 7~Myr. We estimate that eYSCs remain associated to the \PAHlambda\ emission 3--4~Myr. Larger samples of eYSC and YSC populations will provide stronger statistics to further test environmental and cluster mass dependencies on the emergence timescale.
title	FEAST: JWST uncovers the emerging timescales of young star clusters in M83
topic	Astrophysics of Galaxies
url	https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.08874