A study of the spatial evolution of the Radcliffe wave in a sample of young open star clusters

TL;DR

This study models the spatial and kinematic evolution of young open star clusters associated with the Radcliffe wave over 60 million years, revealing persistent wave-like vertical oscillations and perturbations challenging existing formation scenarios.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the vertical perturbations and evolution of the Radcliffe wave, questioning the role of Parker instability in its origin.

Findings

Clusters exhibit wave-like vertical behavior up to 15 Myr in the past.

Vertical perturbations with amplitudes up to 200 pc are present over 30 Myr.

The wave's vertical oscillations are predicted to persist for 15-20 Myr into the future.

Abstract

A sample of 139 young open star clusters closely associated with the Radcliffe wave is considered. Modeling their spatial distribution and kinematics over a time interval of 30 Myrs ago and 30 Myrs into the future revealed that they exhibit the main properties characteristic of a Radcliffe wave over the past 10-15 Myr. They are distributed on the galactic XY plane as a long and narrow chain inclined to the Y axis, and exhibit a wave-like behavior of their vertical coordinates up to 15 Myr in the past. This behavior of their vertical coordinates will persist over the interval of 15-20 Myr in the future. A new finding is the presence of vertical perturbations with an amplitude of deviation from the galactic symmetry plane of up to 200 pc over the entire time interval considered in the past, up to -30 Myr. This result calls into question the possibility of using a scenario in which the initial disturbance of the interstellar medium is assumed to be the Parker instability of the galactic magnetic field.