OB Associations at the Upper End of the Milky Way Luminosity Function

TL;DR

This study identifies new massive OB associations in the Milky Way, doubling the known number of such clusters, and demonstrates a method to detect these elusive luminous star groups using infrared data.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel infrared-based method to detect massive OB associations, significantly increasing the known population in the Milky Way.

Findings

22 candidate associations found in 40 star-forming complexes

At least 7 candidates have masses > 10^4 Msun, doubling known massive clusters

The method accounts for observed free-free flux in most luminous sources

Abstract

The Milky Way's most luminous, young and massive (M > 10^4 Msun) star clusters and OB associations have largely evaded detection despite knowledge of their surrounding H II regions. We search for these clusters and associations within the 40 star forming complexes from Rahman & Murray in the 13 most luminous WMAP free-free emission sources of the Galaxy. Selecting for objects with the dust-reddened colors of OB stars, we identify new candidate associations using the 2MASS point source catalog. In 40 star forming complexes searched, 22 contain cluster/association candidates with sizes and masses in the range of 3' - 26' and 10^{2.3} - 10^{5} Msun. Of the 22 candidates, at least 7 have estimated masses > 10^4 Msun, doubling the number of such massive clusters known in the Galaxy. Applying our method to a statistically similar set of test locations, we estimate that 3.0 +/- 0.6 of our 22 candidate associations are unrelated to the star forming complexes. In addition, the apparent extinctions of our candidate associations correlate well with the predictions from a Galactic model. These facts, along with the clear detection of a known OB association and the previous spectral verification of one cluster found by this method, validate our method. Only one of the searched WMAP sources remains without a candidate. In 8 of the most luminous WMAP sources, the candidate associations can account for the observed free-free flux. With our new compilation, the Galactic census of young, massive stellar associations may now be about half complete.