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In-Situ Field Massive Star Formation in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2024

I. Vargas-Salazar Open the ORCID record for I. Vargas-Salazar [Opens in a new window] ,
M. S. Oey Open the ORCID record for M. S. Oey [Opens in a new window] ,
J. R. Barnes ,
X. Chen ,
N. Castro ,
K. M. Kratter  and
T. A. Faerber
I. Vargas-Salazar*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Department of Astronomy, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 48109
M. S. Oey
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Department of Astronomy, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 48109
J. R. Barnes
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Department of Astronomy, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 48109
X. Chen
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Department of Astronomy, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 48109 Current address: Yale University, Department of Physics, New Haven, CT, USA, 06520
N. Castro
Affiliation:
Leibniz-Institut fur Astrophysik An der Sternwarte, 16 D-14482, Potsdam, Germany
K. M. Kratter
Affiliation:
University of Arizona, Department of Astronomy, Tucson, AZ, USA, 85721
T. A. Faerber
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Department of Astronomy, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 48109 Current address: West Virginia University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Morgantown, WV, USA, 26506
*
email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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A fundamental question for theories of massive star formation is whether OB stars can form in isolation. We assess the contribution of any in-situ OB star formation by using 210 field OB stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) from the Runaways and Isolated O-Type Star Spectroscopic Survey of the SMC (RIOTS4). We search for tiny, sparse clusters around our target OB stars using cluster-finding algorithms. Employing statistical tests, we compare these observations with random-field data sets. We find that ∼5% of our target fields do show evidence of higher central stellar densities, implying the presence of small clusters. This frequency of small clusters is low and within errors, it is also consistent with the field OB population being composed entirely of runaway and walkaway stars. Assuming this small cluster fraction is real, it implies that some OB stars may form in highly isolated conditions. The low frequency could be caused by these clusters evaporating on a short timescale. However, another interpretation is that the low fraction of small clusters is observed because these form rarely, or not at all, implying a higher cluster lower-mass limit and generally consistent with a relationship between maximum stellar mass (mmax) and the cluster mass (Mcl).

Keywords

massive starsfield starsSmall Magellanic Cloudopen star clustersstar formationrunaway starsmultiple star evolutionOB associationsstellar populations
Type
Poster Paper
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 18 , Symposium S361: Massive Stars Near and Far , May 2022 , pp. 559 - 561
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Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

References

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