2001/05/31 by Qing Zhang, S. Michael Fall, Bradley C. Whitmore · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/322278
32 pages, 19 figures (some degraded), accepted for publication in ApJ. See http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~qzhang/research.html for complete PS files
arxiv created 2001/09/28 · openalex publication_date 2001/11/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We report on a multiwavelength study of the relationship between young star clusters in the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/9) and their interstellar environment, with the goal of understanding the formation and feedback effects of star clusters in merging galaxies. This is possible for the first time because various new observations (from X-rays to radio wavelengths) have become available in the past several years. Quantitative comparisons are made between the positions of the star clusters (broken into three age groups) and the properties of the interstellar medium by calculating the two-point correlation functions. We find that young star clusters are distributed in a clustered fashion, demonstrated by power-law angular autocorrelation functions with slopes in the range -0.8 to -1.0. The young embedded clusters (ages ~5 Myr) are found to be more associated with long-wavelength radiation (mid-infrared and longer), while clusters with ages ~10 Myr or older are more associated with short-wavelength radiation (e.g., far-UV and X-ray). The youngest star clusters are associated with molecular cloud complexes with characteristic radii of about 1 kpc. In addition, there is a weak tendency for them to be found in regions with higher H I velocity dispersions. There is some evidence that both cloud-cloud collisions and shocks from recent star formation can trigger star cluster formation, but no dominant triggering mechanism is identified for the majority of the clusters in the Antennae. Feedback from young bright cluster complexes reveals itself in the form of large Hα bubbles and Hα velocity gradients in shells around the complexes. We estimate the current star formation rate to be ≈20 M ☉ yr -1 and the gas consumption timescale to be ~700 Myr. The latter is comparable to the merging timescale and indicates that star formation has been enhanced by the merger event. Finally, we find that the Schmidt law, with index N ≈ -1.4, is also a good description of the cluster formation triggered by merging in the Antennae. There is some evidence that feedback effects may modify the Schmidt law at scales below 1 kpc.