Radiation Transfer of Models of Massive Star Formation. IV. The Model Grid and Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive radiative transfer model grid for fitting spectral energy distributions of massive protostars, grounded in core accretion theory, enabling more physically consistent parameter estimation and testing of star formation models.

Contribution

The paper presents a new, physically motivated model grid for massive star formation, improving upon previous models by ensuring internal consistency and reducing parameter space complexity.

Findings

Successfully fits observed SEDs of massive protostars

Provides a physically consistent framework for parameter estimation

Serves as a tool to test core accretion theory

Abstract

We present a continuum radiative transfer model grid for fitting observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of massive protostars. The model grid is based on the paradigm of core accretion theory for massive star formation with pre-assembled gravitationally-bound cores as initial conditions. In particular, following the Turbulent Core Model, initial core properties are set primarily by their mass and the pressure of their ambient clump. We then model the evolution of the protostar and its surround structures in a self-consistent way. The model grid contains about 9000 SEDs with 4 free parameters: initial core mass, the mean surface density of the environment, the protostellar mass, and the inclination. The model grid is used to fit observed SEDs via chi^2 minimization, with the foreground extinction additionally estimated. We demonstrate the fitting process and results using the example of massive protostar G35.20- 0.74. Compared with other SED model grids currently used for massive star formation studies, in our model grid, the properties of the protostar and its surrounding structures are more physically connected, which reduces the dimensionality of the parameter spaces and the total number of models. This excludes possible fitting of models that are physically unrealistic or that are not internally self-consistent in the context of the Turbulent Core Model. Thus, this model grid serves not only as a fitting tool to estimate properties of massive protostars, but also as a test of core accretion theory. The SED model grid is publicly released with this paper.