The Duration of Star Formation in Galactic Giant Molecular Clouds. I. The Great Nebula in Carina

Abstract

We present a novel infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling methodology that uses likelihood-based weighting of the model fitting results to construct probabilistic H-R diagrams (pHRD) for X-ray identified, intermediate-mass (2-8 $M_{\odot }$), pre-main sequence young stellar populations. This methodology is designed specifically for application to young stellar populations suffering strong, differential extinction ($\Delta A_V>10$ mag), typical of Galactic massive star-forming regions. We pilot this technique in the Carina Nebula Complex (CNC) by modeling the 1-8 $\mu$m SEDs of 2269 likely stellar members that exhibit no excess emission from circumstellar dust disks at 4.5 $\mu$m or shorter wavelengths. A subset of $\sim 100$ intermediate-mass stars in the lightly-obscured Trumpler 14 and 16 clusters have available spectroscopic $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$, measured from the Gaia-ESO survey. We correctly identify the stellar temperature in 70% of cases, and the aggregate pHRD for all sources returns the same peak in the stellar age distribution as obtained using the spectroscopic $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$. The SED model parameter distributions of stellar mass and evolutionary age reveal significant variation in the duration of star formation among four large-scale stellar overdensities within the CNC and a large distributed stellar population. Star formation began $\sim 10$ Myr ago and continues to the present day, with the star formation rate peaking $<3$ Myr ago when the massive Trumpler 14 and 16 clusters formed. We make public the set of 100,000 SED models generated from standard pre-main sequence evolutionary tracks and our custom software package for generating pHRDs and mass-age distributions from the SED fitting results.

arXiv comment24 pages, 18 figures, accepted to ApJ

References in corpus (71)

• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• PARSEC: stellar tracks and isochrones with the PAdova and TRieste Stellar Evolution Code
• The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) for the Spitzer Space Telescope
• Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
• MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST). I: Solar-Scaled Models
• Theory of Star Formation
• Intrinsic Colors, Temperatures, and Bolometric Corrections of Pre-Main Sequence Stars
• Introducing the Illustris Project: Simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe
• Gaia Data Release 2: The astrometric solution
• MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST) 0: Methods for the construction of stellar isochrones
• The Dartmouth Stellar Evolution Database
• Galaxies on FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments): Stellar Feedback Explains Cosmologically Inefficient Star Formation
• GLIMPSE: I. A SIRTF Legacy Project to Map the Inner Galaxy
• Toward Understanding Massive Star Formation
• FIRE-2 Simulations: Physics versus Numerics in Galaxy Formation
• Interpreting Spectral Energy Distributions from Young Stellar Objects. II. Fitting observed SEDs using a large grid of pre-computed models
• The Wavelength Dependence of Interstellar Extinction from 1.25 to 8.0 microns Using GLIMPSE Data
• Interpreting Spectral Energy Distributions from Young Stellar Objects. I. A grid of 200,000 YSO model SEDs
• The Origin of T Tauri X-ray Emission: New Insights from the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project
• A Universal, Local Star Formation Law in Galactic Clouds, Nearby Galaxies, High-Redshift Disks, and Starbursts
• Galactic-Field IMFs of Massive Stars
• Spitzer Space Telescope study of disks in the young $\sigma$ Orionis cluster
• HST/NICMOS Observations of Massive Stellar Clusters Near the Galactic Center
• Kinematics in Young Star Clusters and Associations with Gaia DR2
• Toward a Unification of Star Formation Rate Determinations in the Milky Way and Other Galaxies
• Magnetic Inhibition of Convection and the Fundamental Properties of Low-Mass Stars. III. A Consistent 10 Myr Age for the Upper Scorpius OB Association
• An Assessment of Dynamical Mass Constraints on Pre-Main Sequence Evolutionary Tracks
• The evolution of X-ray emission in young stars
• The Age Distribution of Massive Star Clusters in the Antennae Galaxies
• Can we predict the global magnetic topology of a pre-main sequence star from its position in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram?
• Radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of HII regions and their associated PDRs in turbulent molecular clouds
• The Spatial Structure of Young Stellar Clusters. I. Subclusters
• High- and Low-Mass Star Forming Regions from Hierarchical Gravitational Fragmentation. High local Star Formation Rates with Low Global Efficiencies
• A Pan-Carina YSO Catalog: Intermediate-Mass Young Stellar Objects in the Carina Nebula Identified Via Mid-Infrared Excess Emission
• An Introduction to the Chandra Carina Complex Project
• Overview of the Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) Project
• The Star Formation Rate in the Gravoturbulent Interstellar Medium
• A modular set of synthetic spectral energy distributions for young stellar objects
• Age Determination in Upper Scorpius with Eclipsing Binaries
• A Catalog of Chandra X-ray Sources in the Carina Nebula
• The Massive Star-forming Regions Omnibus X-ray Catalog
• Age Gradients in the Stellar Populations of Massive Star Forming Regions Based on a New Stellar Chronometer
• The MYStIX InfraRed-Excess Source Catalog
• Empirical isochrones and relative ages for young stars, and the radiative-convective gap
• Carina OB Stars: X-ray Signatures of Wind Shocks and Magnetic Fields
• Rotation, inflation, and lithium in the Pleiades
• A Census of the Carina Nebula -- II. Energy Budget and Global Properties of the Nebulosity
• X-ray Star Clusters in the Carina Complex
• Distance and the Initial Mass Function of Young Open Clusters In The Eta Carina Nebula: Tr 14 and Tr 16
• The Gaia-ESO Survey: Lithium depletion in the Gamma Velorum cluster and inflated radii in low-mass pre-main-sequence stars
• Near-Infrared properties of the X-ray emitting young stellar objects in the Carina Nebula
• Herschel far-infrared observations of the Carina Nebula complex I: Introduction and global cloud structure
• The Chandra Carina Complex Project: Deciphering the Enigma of Carina's Diffuse X-ray Emission
• Opening the Treasure Chest: A Newborn Star Cluster Emerges from its Dust Pillar in Carina
• Herschel far-infrared observations of the Carina Nebula Complex. - III: Detailed cloud structure and feedback effects
• Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the Carina Nebula: The steady march of feedback-driven star formation
• A Chandra ACIS Study of the Young Star Cluster Trumpler 15 in Carina and Correlation with Near-infrared Sources
• A Naive Bayes Source Classifier for X-ray Sources
• Candidate X-ray-Emitting OB Stars in the Carina Nebula Identified Via Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions
• Rapid Circumstellar Disk Evolution and an Accelerating Star Formation Rate in the Infrared Dark Cloud M17 SWex
• The Search for Low-mass Companions of B Stars in the Carina Nebula Cluster Trumpler 16
• Structure and Expansion Law of HII Regions in structured Molecular Clouds
• The Massive Star-Forming Regions Omnibus X-Ray Catalog, Second Installment
• Stellar models and isochrones from low-mass to massive stars including pre-main sequence phase with accretion
• The Spatial Evolution of Young Massive Clusters I. A New Tool to Quantitatively Trace Stellar Clustering
• The influence of radiative core growth on coronal X-ray emission from pre-main sequence stars
• Gaia-ESO Survey: global properties of clusters Trumpler 14 and 16 in the Carina Nebula
• A Survey of Irradiated Pillars, Globules, and Jets in the Carina Nebul
• Orbits in the T Tauri triple system observed with SPHERE
• A photometric investigation of the young open cluster Trumpler 15
• Candidate X-ray-Emitting OB Stars in the MYStIX Massive Star-Forming Regions

Cited by in corpus (13)

• On the compressive nature of turbulence driven by ionising feedback in the pillars of the Carina Nebula
• The Massive Star-Forming Regions Omnibus X-Ray Catalog, Third Installment
• Gaia EDR3 distances of the young stellar clusters in the extended Carina Nebula complex
• A Census of Star Formation in the Outer Galaxy II: The GLIMPSE360 Field
• Observational constraints on the likelihood of ${}^{26}$Al in planet-forming environments
• Linking stellar populations to HII regions across nearby galaxies. II. Infrared Reprocessed and UV Direct Radiation Pressure in HII Regions
• Carina's Pillars of Destruction: the view from ALMA
• Characterizing the X-ray Emission of Intermediate-Mass Pre-Main-Sequence Stars
• Search for Brown Dwarfs in IC 1396 with Subaru HSC: Interpreting the Impact of Environmental Factors on Sub-stellar Population
• Illuminating a tadpole's metamorphosis III: quantifying past and present environmental impact
• The population of young low-mass stars in Trumpler 14
• Detection of new O-type stars in the obscured stellar cluster Tr 16-SE in the Carina Nebula with KMOS
• Spatial distribution and clustering properties of the young stellar populations in the Carina Nebula complex and Car OB1