Unbound Young Stellar Systems: Star Formation on the loose

TL;DR

This review summarizes 60 years of research on unbound young stellar systems, highlighting their hierarchical, fractal clustering patterns and their relation to star formation processes and interstellar medium conditions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive synthesis of observational and theoretical insights into the structure, formation, and environmental dependence of unbound young stellar systems.

Findings

Unbound stellar systems exhibit hierarchical, fractal clustering patterns.

Their morphology varies from small associations to large complexes.

Clustering behavior is linked to turbulence in the interstellar medium.

Abstract

[abridged] Unbound young stellar systems, the loose ensembles of physically related young bright stars, trace the typical regions of recent star formation in galaxies. Their morphologies vary from small associations of stars to enormous stellar complexes. Being associated with star-forming regions of various sizes, they trace the regions where stars form at various scales, from compact clusters to whole galactic disks. They have been, thus, the focus of several studies with special interest on their demographics, classification, and structural morphology. Their surveys demonstrate that the clear distinction of these systems into well-defined classes is not straightforward, due to their low densities, asymmetric shapes and variety in structural parameters. Unbound stellar structures follow a hierarchical clustering pattern up to the scale of a whole star-forming galaxy. This structural pattern, which is usually characterized as self-similar or fractal, appears to be identical to that of star-forming giant molecular clouds and interstellar gas, driven mainly by turbulence cascade. In this short review, I make a concise compilation of our understanding of unbound young stellar systems across various environments in the local universe, as it is developed during the last 60 years. I present a factual assessment of the clustering behavior of star formation, as revealed from the assembling pattern of stars across loose stellar structures and its relation to the interstellar medium and the environmental conditions. I also provide a consistent account of the processes that possibly play important role in the formation of unbound stellar systems, compiled from both theoretical and observational investigations on the field.