Star Formation History of a Young Super-Star Cluster in NGC 4038/39: Direct Detection of Low Mass Pre-Main Sequence Stars

TL;DR

This study analyzes the near-infrared spectrum of a young super-star cluster in NGC 4038/39, directly detecting low-mass pre-main sequence stars and constraining its star formation history and initial mass function.

Contribution

First direct detection of low-mass pre-main sequence stars in an unresolved super-star cluster using population synthesis models.

Findings

Detected PMS stars in a super-star cluster for the first time.

Revealed the presence of two clusters of different ages within the observed region.

Provided constraints on the initial mass function of the cluster.

Abstract

We present an analysis of the near-infrared spectrum of a young massive star cluster in the overlap region of the interacting galaxies NGC 4038/39 using population synthesis models. Our goal is to model the cluster population as well as provide rough constraints on its initial mass function (IMF). The cluster shows signs of youth such as thermal radio emission and strong hydrogen emission lines in the near-infrared. Late-type absorption lines are also present which are indicative of late-type stars in the cluster. The strength and ratio of these absorption lines cannot be reproduced through either late-type pre-main sequence (PMS) stars or red supergiants alone. Thus we interpret the spectrum as a superposition of two star clusters of different ages, which is feasible since the 1" spectrum encompasses a physical region of ~90 pc and radii of super-star clusters are generally measured to be a few parsecs. One cluster is young (<= 3 Myr) and is responsible for part of the late-type absorption features, which are due to PMS stars in the cluster, and the hydrogen emission lines. The second cluster is older (6 Myr - 18 Myr) and is needed to reproduce the overall depth of the late-type absorption features in the spectrum. Both are required to accurately reproduce the near-infrared spectrum of the object. Thus we have directly detected PMS objects in an unresolved super-star cluster for the first time using a combination of population synthesis models and pre-main sequence tracks. This analysis serves as a testbed of our technique to constrain the low-mass IMF in young super-star clusters as well as an exploration of the star formation history of young UC HII regions.