CaltechAUTHORS
Published September 23, 2022 | Version public
Journal Article Metadata-only

PHANGS: constraining star formation time-scales using the spatial correlations of star clusters and giant molecular clouds

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Wyoming
  • 2. ROR icon University of Antofagasta
  • 3. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 4. ROR icon NOIRLab
  • 5. ROR icon Space Telescope Science Institute
  • 6. ROR icon The Ohio State University
  • 7. ROR icon University of Bonn
  • 8. ROR icon Carnegie Observatories
  • 9. ROR icon University of Chile
  • 10. ROR icon Heidelberg University
  • 11. ROR icon European Southern Observatory
  • 12. ROR icon Centre for Astronomical Reseach of Lyon
  • 13. ROR icon University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • 14. ROR icon Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology
  • 15. ROR icon Tamkang University
  • 16. ROR icon University of Alberta
  • 17. ROR icon Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
  • 18. ROR icon Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Abstract

In the hierarchical view of star formation, giant molecular clouds (GMCs) undergo fragmentation to form small-scale structures made up of stars and star clusters. Here we study the connection between young star clusters and cold gas across a range of extragalactic environments by combining the high resolution (1") PHANGS–ALMA catalogue of GMCs with the star cluster catalogues from PHANGS–HST. The star clusters are spatially matched with the GMCs across a sample of 11 nearby star-forming galaxies with a range of galactic environments (centres, bars, spiral arms, etc.). We find that after 4 − 6 Myr the star clusters are no longer associated with any gas clouds. Additionally, we measure the autocorrelation of the star clusters and GMCs as well as their cross-correlation to quantify the fractal nature of hierarchical star formation. Young (≤10 Myr) star clusters are more strongly autocorrelated on kpc and smaller spatial scales than the >10 Myr stellar populations, indicating that the hierarchical structure dissolves over time.

Additional Information

We thank the referee for the helpful recommendations. This work has been carried out as part of the PHANGS collaboration. KG is supported by the Australian Research Council through the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellowship DE220100766 funded by the Australian Government. KG is supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), through project number CE170100013. TGW acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 694343). JMDK and MC gratefully acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through an Emmy Noether Research Group (grant number KR4801/1-1) and the DFG Sachbeihilfe (grant number KR4801/2-1), as well as from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme via the ERC Starting Grant MUSTANG (grant agreement no. 714907). FB would like to acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 726384/Empire). MC gratefully acknowledges funding from the DFG through an Emmy Noether Research Group (grant number CH2137/1-1). This research is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program 15654. HAP acknowledges support by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under grant 110-2112-M-032-020-MY3. MB gratefully acknowledges support by the ANID BASAL project FB210003 and from the FONDECYT regular grant 1211000. SCOG and RSK acknowledge financial support from DFG via the Collaborative Research Center 'The Milky Way System' (SFB 881, funding ID 138713538, subprojects A1, B1, B2, B8), from the Heidelberg Cluster of Excellence 'STRUCTURES' (EXC 2181 - 390900948), and from the European Research Council in the ERC Synergy Grant 'ECOGAL' (project ID 855130). This paper makes use of the following ALMA data: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2015.1.00956.S and ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00886.S. ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA), and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO and NAOJ. The Digitized Sky Survey was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute under U.S. Government grant NAG W-2166. The images of these surveys are based on photographic data obtained using the Oschin Schmidt Telescope on Palomar Mountain and the UK Schmidt Telescope. The plates were processed into the present compressed digital form with the permission of these institutions. Based on observations and archival data obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. The GMC catalogue analysed here is published in Rosolowsky et al. (2021) and Hughes et al. (in preparation). The stellar cluster catalogue is from Lee et al. (2022) and is available at the PHANGS homepage at Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) with doi: 10.17909/t9-r08f-dq31.

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
117219
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20221003-756400000.30

Related works

Describes
10.17909/t9-r08f-dq31 (DOI)

Funding

Australian Research Council
DE220100766
European Research Council (ERC)
CE170100013
European Research Council (ERC)
694343
European Research Council (ERC)
714907
European Research Council (ERC)
726384/Empire
European Research Council (ERC)
855130
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
KR4801/1-1
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
KR4801/2-1
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
CH2137/1-1
NASA
NAS 5-26555
European Space Agency (ESA)
NASA
NAG W-2166
Ministry of Science and Technology (Taipei)
110-2112-M-032-020-MY3
Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT)
1211000

Dates

Created
2022-10-12
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-10-12
Created from EPrint's last_modified field