Star cluster formation with stellar feedback and large-scale inflow

TL;DR

This paper models the interplay of accretion and stellar feedback during star cluster formation, showing how feedback mechanisms influence gas dispersal and cluster evolution, with implications for different mass regimes.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model of cluster formation that incorporates both accretion and various stellar feedback processes, highlighting their roles in terminating star formation.

Findings

Protostellar outflows dominate feedback in low-mass regions.

Radiation pressure and photo-ionization clear gas in massive clusters.

Feedback disrupts gas in less turbulent, less massive regions.

Abstract

During star cluster formation, ongoing mass accretion is resisted by stellar feedback in the form of protostellar outflows from the low-mass stars and photo-ionization and radiation pressure feedback from the massive stars. We model the evolution of cluster-forming regions during a phase in which both accretion and feedback are present, and use these models to investigate how star cluster formation might terminate. Protostellar outflows are the strongest form of feedback in low-mass regions, but these cannot stop cluster formation if matter continues to flow in. In more massive clusters, radiation pressure and photo-ionization rapidly clear the cluster-forming gas when its column density is too small. We assess the rates of dynamical mass ejection and of evaporation, while accounting for the important effect of dust opacity on photo-ionization. Our models are consistent with the census of protostellar outflows in NGC 1333 and Serpens South, and with the dust temperatures observed in regions of massive star formation. Comparing observations of massive cluster-forming regions against our model parameter space, and against our expectations for accretion-driven evolution, we infer that massive-star feedback is a likely cause of gas disruption in regions with velocity dispersions less than a few kilometers per second, but that more massive and more turbulent regions are too strongly bound for stellar feedback to be disruptive.