The star formation process in the Magellanic Clouds

TL;DR

This review explores star formation in the Magellanic Clouds, examining how their unique low-metallicity environments inform our understanding of star formation processes, efficiencies, and feedback mechanisms relevant to galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of star formation environments in the Magellanic Clouds with theoretical models and discusses key processes like chemistry, IMF, and feedback effects.

Findings

Star formation in the Magellanic Clouds varies with environment and metallicity.

Feedback from massive stars influences subsequent star formation.

The chemical processes in embedded star-forming regions are crucial for understanding early galaxy evolution.

Abstract

The Magellanic Clouds offer unique opportunities to study star formation both on the global scales of an interacting system of gas-rich galaxies, as well as on the scales of individual star-forming clouds. The interstellar media of the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds and their connecting bridge, span a range in (low) metallicities and gas density. This allows us to study star formation near the critical density and gain an understanding of how tidal dwarfs might form; the low metallicity of the SMC in particular is typical of galaxies during the early phases of their assembly, and studies of star formation in the SMC provide a stepping stone to understand star formation at high redshift where these processes can not be directly observed. In this review, I introduce the different environments encountered in the Magellanic System and compare these with the Schmidt-Kennicutt law and the predicted efficiencies of various chemo-physical processes. I then concentrate on three aspects that are of particular importance: the chemistry of the embedded stages of star formation, the Initial Mass Function, and feedback effects from massive stars and its ability to trigger further star formation.