On the Heating Efficiency Derived from Observations of Young Super Star Clusters in M82

Silich, Sergiy; Tenorio-Tagle, Guillermo; Torres-Campos, Ana; Muñoz-Tuñón, Casiana; Monreal-Ibero, Ana; Melo, Veronica
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 700, Issue 2, pp. 931-936 (2009).

Advertised on:
8
2009
Number of authors
6
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
20
Refereed citations
16
Description
Here, we discuss the mechanical feedback that massive stellar clusters provide to the interstellar medium of their host galaxy. We apply an analytic theory developed in a previous study for M82-A1 to a sample of 10 clusters located in the central zone of the starburst galaxy M82, all surrounded by compact and dense H II regions. We claim that the only way that such H II regions can survive around the selected clusters, is if they are embedded into a high-pressure ISM and if the majority of their mechanical energy is lost within the star cluster volume via strong radiative cooling. The latter implies that these clusters have a low heating efficiency, η, and evolve in the bimodal hydrodynamic regime. In this regime, the shock-heated plasma in the central zones of a cluster becomes thermally unstable, loses its pressure and is accumulated there, whereas the matter injected by supernovae and stellar winds outside this volume forms a high-velocity outflow—the star cluster wind. We calculated the heating efficiency for each of the selected clusters and found that in all cases it does not exceed 10%. Such low heating efficiency values imply a low mechanical energy output and the impact that the selected clusters provide to the ISM of M82 is thus much smaller than what one would expect using stellar cluster synthetic models.
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Starbursts in Galaxies GEFE
Starsbursts play a key role in the cosmic evolution of galaxies, and thus in the star formation (SF) history of the universe, the production of metals, and the feedback coupling galaxies with the cosmic web. Extreme SF conditions prevail early on during the formation of the first stars and galaxies, therefore, the starburst phenomenon constitutes a
Casiana
Muñoz Tuñón