Feedback from Winds and Supernovae in Massive Stellar Clusters

TL;DR

This study uses 3D hydrodynamic simulations to explore how winds and supernovae from massive stars influence the surrounding molecular material, revealing that dense gas persists longer than expected despite feedback.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the complex interactions between stellar feedback and molecular clouds using detailed 3D models with temperature-dependent particle masses.

Findings

Winds escape through low-density channels, shaping the molecular cloud.

Dense molecular gas remains largely unaffected initially by supernova explosions.

Feedback processes create inhomogeneous structures in the molecular material.

Abstract

We simulate the effects of massive star feedback, via winds and SNe, on inhomogeneous molecular material left over from the formation of a massive stellar cluster. We use 3D hydrodynamic models with a temperature dependent average particle mass to model the separate molecular, atomic, and ionized phases. We find that the winds blow out of the molecular clump along low-density channels, and gradually ablate denser material into these. However, the dense molecular gas is surprisingly long-lived and is not immediately affected by the first star in the cluster exploding.