Should I Stay or Should I Go: Stellar Wind Retention and Expulsion in Massive Star Clusters

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamical simulations to investigate how stellar winds are retained or expelled in massive star clusters, considering various parameters like mass, metallicity, and age, to understand gas dynamics and star formation feedback.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of stellar wind retention and expulsion across different cluster types using hydrodynamical models and stellar evolution data, highlighting the impact of wind mixing and cluster properties.

Findings

Wind retention depends on cluster mass and compactness.

Stellar wind mixing influences gas expulsion efficiency.

Implications for star formation and chemical enrichment in clusters.

Abstract

Mass and energy injection throughout the lifetime of a star cluster contributes to the gas reservoir available for subsequent episodes of star formation and the feedback energy budget responsible for ejecting material from the cluster. In addition, mass processed in stellar interiors and ejected as winds has the potential to augment the abundance ratios of currently forming stars, or stars which form at a later time from a retained gas reservoir. Here we present hydrodynamical simulations that explore a wide range of cluster masses, compactnesses, metallicities and stellar population age combinations in order to determine the range of parameter space conducive to stellar wind retention or wind powered gas expulsion in star clusters. We discuss the effects of the stellar wind prescription on retention and expulsion effectiveness, using MESA stellar evolutionary models as a test bed for exploring how the amounts of wind retention/expulsion depend upon the amount of mixing between the winds from stars of different masses and ages. We conclude by summarizing some implications for gas retention and expulsion in a variety of compact ($\sigma_v \gtrsim 20 \, {\rm km s^{-1}}$) star clusters including young massive star clusters ($10^5 \lesssim M/M_\odot \lesssim 10^7$, $age \lesssim 500$~Myrs), intermediate age clusters ($10^5 \lesssim M/M_\odot \lesssim 10^7$, $age \approx 1-4$~Gyrs), and globular clusters ($10^5 \lesssim M/M_\odot \lesssim 10^7$, $age \gtrsim 10$~Gyrs).