Observational signatures of forming young massive clusters: continuum emission from dense Hii regions
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY(2023)
摘要
Young massive clusters (YMCs) are the most massive star clusters forming in nearby galaxies and are thought to be a young analogue to the globular clusters. Understanding the formation process of YMCs leads to looking into very efficient star formation in high-redshift galaxies suggested by recent JWST observations. We investigate possible observational signatures of their formation stage, particularly when the mass of a cluster is increasing via accretion from a natal molecular cloud. To this end, we study the broad-band continuum emission from ionized gas and dust enshrouding YMCs, whose formation is followed by recent radiation hydrodynamics simulations. We perform post-process radiative transfer calculations using simulation snapshots and find characteristic spectral features at radio and far-infrared frequencies. We show that a striking feature is long-lasting, strong free-free emission from a similar to 10-pc-scale Hii region with a large emission measure of greater than or similar to 10(7) cm(-6) pc, corresponding to the mean electron density of greater than or similar to 10(3) cm(-3). There is a turnover feature below similar to 10 GHz, a signature of the optically thick free-free emission, often found in Galactic ultracompact Hii regions. These features come from the peculiar YMC formation process, where the cluster's gravity effectively traps photoionized gas for a long duration and enables continuous star formation within the cluster. Such large and dense Hii regions show distinct distribution on the density-size diagram, apart from the standard sequence of Galactic Hii regions. This is consistent with the observational trend inferred for extragalactic Hii regions associated with YMCs.
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关键词
stars: formation,stars: massive,Hii regions,galaxies: star clusters: general
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