Large-scale Map of Millimeter-wavelength Hydrogen Radio Recombination Lines around a Young Massive Star Cluster

Abstract

We report the first map of large-scale (10 pc in length) emission of millimeter-wavelength hydrogen recombination lines (mm-RRLs) toward the giant H II region around the W43-Main young massive star cluster (YMC). Our mm-RRL data come from the IRAM 30 m telescope and are analyzed together with radio continuum and cm-RRL data from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and HCO${}^{+}$ 1-0 line emission data from the IRAM 30 m. The mm-RRLs reveal an expanding wind-blown ionized gas shell with an electron density ~70-1500 cm${}^{-3}$ driven by the WR/OB cluster, which produces a total Ly$\hat{I}\pm$ photon flux of 1.5 x 10${}^{50}$ s${}^{-1}$. This shell is interacting with the dense neutral molecular gas in the W43-Main dense cloud. Combining the high spectral and angular resolution mm-RRL and cm-RRL cubes, we derive the two-dimensional relative distributions of dynamical and pressure broadening of the ionized gas emission and find that the RRL line shapes are dominated by pressure broadening (4-55 km s${}^{-1}$) near the YMC and by dynamical broadening (8-36 km s${}^{-1}$) near the shell's edge. Ionized gas clumps hosting ultra-compact H II regions found at the edge of the shell suggest that large-scale ionized gas motion triggers the formation of new star generation near the periphery of the shell.

Published at https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aa7d48/pdf