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Abstract Feedback from massive stars plays an important role in the formation of star clusters. Whether a very massive star is born early or late in the cluster formation timeline has profound implications for the star cluster formation and assembly processes. We carry out a controlled experiment to characterize the effects of early-forming massive stars on star cluster formation. We use the star formation software suiteTorch, combining self-gravitating magnetohydrodynamics, ray-tracing radiative transfer,N-body dynamics, and stellar feedback, to model four initially identical 104M⊙giant molecular clouds with a Gaussian density profile peaking at 521.5 cm−3. Using theTorchsoftware suite through theAMUSEframework, we modify three of the models, to ensure that the first star that forms is very massive (50, 70, and 100M⊙). Early-forming massive stars disrupt the natal gas structure, resulting in fast evacuation of the gas from the star-forming region. The star formation rate is suppressed, reducing the total mass of the stars formed. Our fiducial control model, without an early massive star, has a larger star formation rate and total efficiency by up to a factor of 3, and a higher average star formation efficiency per freefall time by up to a factor of 7. Early-forming massive stars promote the buildup of spatially separate and gravitationally unbound subclusters, while the control model forms a single massive cluster.
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GN-z11: Witnessing the formation of second-generation stars and an accreting massive black hole in a massive star cluster
We explore the possibility of theN-rich young proto-galaxy GN-z11, recently observed atz = 10.6 by JWST, being the result of the formation of second generation stars from pristine gas and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) ejecta in a massive globular cluster or nuclear star cluster. We show that a second generation forming out of gas polluted by the ejecta of massive AGB stars and mixed with gas of a standard composition accounts for the unusually large N/O in the GN-z11 spectrum. The timing of the evolution of massive (4–7.5 M⊙) AGBs also provides a favorable environment for the growth of a central stellar mass black hole to the AGN stage observed in GN-z11. According to our model, the progenitor system was born when the age of the Universe was ≃260 − 380 Myr, well within the bounds of the pre-reionization epoch.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2009193
- PAR ID:
- 10534008
- Publisher / Repository:
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Volume:
- 680
- ISSN:
- 0004-6361
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- L19
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202348240
