The Genesis of Super Star Clusters as Self-Gravitating HII Regions

Abstract

We examine the effects of ionization, radiation pressure and main sequence winds from massive stars on self-gravitating, clumpy molecular clouds, thereby modeling the formation and pre-supernova feedback of massive star clusters. We find the process of ``turbulent mass loading'' is effective in confining HII regions. Extrapolating typical Galactic high-mass star forming regions to greater initial gas cloud masses and assuming steady star formation rates, we determine the timescales for cloud disruption. We find that a dense n_c ~ 2 x 10^5 cm^-3 cloud with initial mass M_c ~ 4 x 10^5 M_sun is able to form ~2 x 10^5 M_sun of stars (50% efficiency) before feedback disperses the gas after ~3 Myr. This mass and age are typical of young, optically visible super star clusters (SSCs). The high efficiency permits the creation of a bound stellar system.

To appear in Proceedings of "Starbursts: Near and Far", Ringberg Castle, Germany, 10-15 September 2000; 6 pages (including 1 figure)