On the Extreme Positive Feedback Star-forming Mode from Massive and Compact Super Star Clusters

Tenorio-Tagle, Guillermo; Silich, Sergiy; Rodríguez-González, Ary; Muñoz-Tuñón, Casiana
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 628, Issue 1, pp. L13-L16.

Advertised on:
7
2005
Number of authors
4
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
39
Refereed citations
30
Description
The force of gravity acting within the volume occupied by young, compact, and massive super star clusters is here shown to drive in situ all the matter deposited by winds and supernovae into several generations of star formation. These events are promoted by radiative cooling, which drains the thermal energy of the ejected gas causing its accumulation to then rapidly exceed the gravitational instability criterion. A detailed account of the integrated ionizing radiation and mechanical luminosity as a function of time is here shown to lead to a new stationary solution. In this, the mass deposition rate M˙, instead of causing a wind as in the adiabatic solution, turns into a positive feedback star-forming mode equal to the star formation rate. Some of the implications of this extreme positive feedback mode are discussed.