The Imprints Of Galactic Environment On Cluster Formation and Evolution

TL;DR

This paper reviews how galactic environments influence the formation and evolution of young and globular star clusters, aiming to understand their connection and the conditions that shape their development.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the properties of young star clusters and discusses how galactic environments impact their formation and evolution, highlighting open questions in the field.

Findings

Galactic environment imprints affect star cluster properties.

YSCs and GCs may share formation physics under different conditions.

Understanding cluster formation aids in reconstructing galaxy evolution.

Abstract

Young star clusters (YSCs) appear to be a ubiquitous product of star formation in local galaxies, thus, they can be used to study the star formation process at work in their host galaxies. Moreover, YSCs are intrinsically brighter that single stars, potentially becoming the most important tracers of the recent star formation history in galaxies in the local Universe. In local galaxies, we also witness the presence of a large population of evolved star clusters, commonly called globular clusters (GCs). GCs peak formation history is very close to the redshift (z~2) when the cosmic star formation history reached the maximum. Therefore, GCs are usually associated to extreme star formation episodes in high-redshift galaxies. It is yet not clear whether YSCs and GCs share a similar formation process (same physics under different interstellar medium conditions) and evolution process, and whether the former can be used as progenitor analogs of the latter. In this invited contribution, I review general properties of YSC populations in local galaxies. I will summarise some of the current open questions in the field, with particular emphasis to whether or not galactic environments, where YSCs form, leave imprints on the nested populations. The importance of this rapidly developing field can be crucial in understanding GC formation and possibly the galactic environment condition where this ancient population formed.