Dynamical Cluster Assembly Framework (D-CAF): The Link Between Star Cluster Formation and Expansion Rates

TL;DR

This paper introduces D-CAF, a framework linking star formation histories to the dynamical evolution of young stellar systems, highlighting how gas dynamics influence cluster survival and expansion.

Contribution

The paper presents the D-CAF framework that connects star formation processes with the dynamical evolution of stellar systems using realistic MHD simulations and N-body modeling.

Findings

Gas collapse increases stellar concentration and velocity before gas expulsion.

Embedded evolution influences cluster survival and expansion.

Expansion diagnostics can trace the physical expansion rate when kinematic data is available.

Abstract

We introduce the Dynamical Cluster Assembly Framework (D-CAF), an AMUSE-based framework designed to connect embedded star formation histories to the dynamical evolution of young stellar systems. We model star formation through the gradual formation of stars inside an evolving background potential, where the global gas evolution is extracted from realistic magneto-hydrodynamical (MHD) simulations. In this first work, we focus on the global evolution of the natal gas and its dynamical imprint on the stellar population. Across all explored MHD setups, we find that the gas continues to collapse while stars are forming, increasing both the central concentration and velocity scale of the embedded stellar population before gas expulsion. Using a controlled grid of direct $N$-body simulations, we show that this embedded evolution strongly regulates both the survival and later expansion of young stellar systems. In particular, gas contraction shortens the stellar crossing time prior to gas expulsion, making the same gas-removal timescale effectively more adiabatic for the stars. We find that the present-day expansion of stellar associations still preserves information about the embedded dynamical state reached during formation. The expansion rate is limited by the velocity scale reached before gas expulsion, while the efficiency with which this velocity field is transformed into expansion depends on the gas-expulsion timescale. Finally, we show that some commonly used expansion diagnostics can directly trace the physical expansion rate of young stellar systems when full kinematic information is available, opening the possibility of using stellar kinematics to constrain the dynamical conditions of embedded star formation.