The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. Progression of Large-Scale Star Formation across Space and Time in M31

TL;DR

This study analyzes the clustering and spatial distribution of young stars in M31 using Hubble data, revealing that stellar structures persist over hundreds of millions of years and are influenced by galactic turbulence and spiral arm dynamics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the large-scale star formation progression in M31, highlighting the longevity and self-similarity of stellar clustering across different galactic regions.

Findings

Young stellar structures survive over 300 Myr.

Younger stars are more strongly clustered than older stars.

Clustering is driven by turbulence from gravitational instabilities.

Abstract

We investigate the clustering of early-type stars younger than 300 Myr on galactic scales in M31. Based on the stellar photometric catalogs of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury program that also provides stellar parameters derived from the individual energy distributions, our analysis is focused on the young stars in three star-forming regions, located at galactocentric distances of about 5, 10, and 15 kpc, corresponding to the inner spiral arms, the ring structure, and the outer arm, respectively. We apply the two-point correlation function to our selected sample to investigate the clustering behavior of these stars across different time- and length-scales. We find that young stellar structure survives across the whole extent of M31 longer than 300 Myr. Stellar distribution in all regions appears to be self-similar, with younger stars being systematically more strongly clustered than the older, which are more dispersed. The observed clustering is interpreted as being induced by turbulence, the driving source for which is probably gravitational instabilities driven by the spiral arms, which are stronger closer to the galactic centre.