Variations in Stellar Clustering with Environment: Dispersed Star Formation and the Origin of Faint Fuzzies

TL;DR

This paper explores how variations in cloud density and pressure influence star formation efficiency and clustering, explaining the formation of faint fuzzy star clusters in different galactic environments.

Contribution

It introduces models linking cloud density distributions to star formation efficiency and clustering, and explains the origin of faint fuzzy clusters based on environmental conditions.

Findings

Star formation efficiency increases with cloud density and dispersion of the density PDF.

Higher cloud pressure leads to more tightly bound star clusters.

Faint fuzzy clusters form in high Mach number, low tidal force regions.

Abstract

The observed increase in star formation efficiency with average cloud density, from several percent in whole giant molecular clouds to ~30 or more in cluster-forming cores, can be understood as the result of hierarchical cloud structure if there is a characteristic density as which individual stars become well defined. Also in this case, the efficiency of star formation increases with the dispersion of the density probability distribution function (pdf). Models with log-normal pdf's illustrate these effects. The difference between star formation in bound clusters and star formation in loose groupings is attributed to a difference in cloud pressure, with higher pressures forming more tightly bound clusters. This correlation accounts for the observed increase in clustering fraction with star formation rate and with the observation of Scaled OB Associations in low pressure environments. ``Faint fuzzie'' star clusters, which are bound but have low densities, can form in regions with high Mach numbers and low background tidal forces. The proposal by Burkert, Brodie & Larsen (2005) that faint fuzzies form at large radii in galactic collisional rings, satisfies these constraints.