Winds in Star Clusters Drive Kolmogorov Turbulence

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamic simulations to show that stellar wind collisions in young star clusters generate Kolmogorov-like turbulence, influencing star formation processes.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates through simulations that stellar wind interactions in star clusters produce turbulence with Kolmogorov characteristics, a novel insight into cluster dynamics.

Findings

Wind-ISM collisions create hot, expanding bubbles.

Overlapping bubbles induce turbulence with Kolmogorov spectrum.

Turbulence may affect future star formation in clusters.

Abstract

Intermediate and massive stars drive fast and powerful isotropic winds that interact with the winds of nearby stars in star clusters and the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). Wind-ISM collisions generate astrospheres around these stars that contain hot $T\sim 10^7$ K gas that adiabatically expands. As individual bubbles expand and collide they become unstable, potentially driving turbulence in star clusters. In this paper we use hydrodynamic simulations to model a densely populated young star cluster within a homogeneous cloud to study stellar wind collisions with the surrounding ISM. We model a mass-segregated cluster of 20 B-type young main sequence stars with masses ranging from 3--17 $M_{\odot}$. We evolve the winds for $\sim$11 kyrs and show that wind-ISM collisions and over-lapping wind-blown bubbles around B-stars mixes the hot gas and ISM material generating Kolmogorov-like turbulence on small scales early in its evolution. We discuss how turbulence driven by stellar winds may impact the subsequent generation of star formation in the cluster