Massive Star Cluster Formation and Destruction in Luminous Infrared Galaxies in GOALS II: An ACS/WFC3 Survey of Nearby LIRGs

Abstract

We present the results of a Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 near-UV and ACS/WFC optical study into the star cluster populations of 10 luminous and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs) in the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). Through integrated broadband photometry we have derived ages, masses, and extinctions for a total of 1027 star clusters in galaxies with $d_L<$ 110 Mpc in order to avoid issues related to cluster blending. The measured cluster age distribution slope of $dN/d\tau \propto {\tau }^{-0.5+/-0.2}$ is steeper than what has been observed in lower-luminosity star-forming galaxies. Further, differences in the slope of the observed cluster age distribution between inner- ($dN/d\tau \propto {\tau }^{-1.07+/-0.12}$) and outer-disk ($dN/d\tau \propto {\tau }^{-0.37+/-0.09}$) star clusters provides evidence of mass-dependent cluster destruction in the central regions of LIRGs driven primarily by the combined effect of strong tidal shocks and encounters with massive GMCs. Excluding the nuclear ring surrounding the Seyfert 1 nucleus in NGC 7469, the derived cluster mass function (CMF: $dN/dM\propto M^{\alpha }$) has marginal evidence for a truncation in the power-law (PL) at $M_t\sim 2$x$10^6{M}_{\odot }$ for our three most cluster-rich galaxies, which are all classified as early-stage mergers. Finally, we find evidence of a flattening of the CMF slope of $dN/dM\propto M^{-1.42\pm 0.1}$ for clusters in late-stage mergers relative to early-stage ($\alpha =-1.65\pm 0.02$), which we attribute to an increase in the formation of massive clusters over the course of the interaction.

arXiv comment70 pages, 21 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (92)

• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Parameter Results
• Starburst99: Synthesis Models for Galaxies with Active Star Formation
• Correcting for the Effects of Interstellar Extinction
• Embedded Clusters in Molecular Clouds
• A Unified, Merger-Driven Model for the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background, Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxy Spheroids
• A simple model to interpret the ultraviolet, optical and infrared emission from galaxies
• Young massive star clusters
• The Photometric Performance and Calibration of the HST Advanced Camera For Surveys
• 2MASS Extended Source Catalog: Overview and Algorithms
• Different star formation laws for disks versus starbursts at low and high redshifts
• Star Clusters Across Cosmic Time
• Massive molecular outflows and negative feedback in ULIRGs observed by Herschel-PACS
• On the fraction of star formation occurring in bound stellar clusters
• GOALS: The Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey
• Young massive star clusters in nearby galaxies. II.Software tools, data reductions and cluster sizes
• The spectral evolution of the first galaxies. I. James Webb Space Telescope detection limits and color criteria for population III galaxies
• Star cluster disruption by giant molecular clouds
• Galaxy-Wide Shocks in Late-Merger Stage Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• Metallicity Gradients and Gas Flows in Galaxy Pairs
• The Age Distribution of Massive Star Clusters in the Antennae Galaxies
• The E-MOSAICS Project: simulating the formation and co-evolution of galaxies and their star cluster populations
• The molecular gas in Luminous Infrared Galaxies I: CO lines, extreme physical conditions, and their drivers
• On the Star Formation Rate - Brightest Cluster Relation: Estimating the peak SFR in post-merger galaxies
• The Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey: Comparison of Ultraviolet and Far-Infrared Properties
• Clumpy Galaxies in GOODS and GEMS: Massive Analogs of Local Dwarf Irregulars
• The Mass Spectra of Giant Molecular Clouds in the Local Group
• The Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/4039) Revisited: ACS and NICMOS Observations of a Prototypical Merger
• Shock-induced star formation in a model of the Mice
• Star Cluster Formation and Disruption Time-Scales -- I. An empirical determination of the disruption time of star clusters in four galaxies
• Signatures of the Youngest Starbursts: Optically-thick Thermal Bremsstrahlung Radio Sources in Henize 2-10
• Molecular gas in extreme star-forming environments: the starbursts Arp220 and NGC6240 as case studies
• Disruption time scales of star clusters in different galaxies
• The dynamical state of stellar structure in star-forming regions
• Modeling the formation and evolution of star cluster populations in galaxy simulations
• Resolved spectroscopy of gravitationally lensed galaxies: global dynamics and star-forming clumps on ~100pc scales
• Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey with The Hubble Space Telescope. Stellar cluster catalogues and first insights into cluster formation and evolution in NGC 628
• Stellar Clusters in M83: Formation, evolution, disruption and the influence of environment
• Spectral Energy Distributions of Local Luminous And Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies
• Star Cluster Demographics. I. A General Framework and Application to the Antennae Galaxies
• Star cluster formation in cosmological simulations. I. Properties of young clusters
• A Constant Bar Fraction out to Redshift z~1 in the Advanced Camera for Surveys Field of the Tadpole Galaxy
• High Resolution Molecular Gas Maps of M33
• The Physics of Star Cluster Formation and Evolution
• The GRIFFIN project -- Formation of star clusters with individual massive stars in a simulated dwarf galaxy starburst
• The Nuclear Gas Dynamics and Star Formation of NGC 7469
• Similarities in Populations of Star Clusters
• Formation versus destruction: the evolution of the star cluster population in galaxy mergers
• The Spatial Extent of (U)LIRGs in the mid-Infrared I: The Continuum Emission
• Spatially resolved star formation and fuelling in galaxy interactions
• An Ultraviolet through Infrared Look at Star Formation and Super Star Clusters in Two Circumnuclear Starburst Rings
• Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury XVIII. The High-mass Truncation of the Star Cluster Mass Function
• Probability Distribution Functions OF 12CO(J = 1-0) Brightness and Integrated Intensity in M51: The PAWS View
• Effective Radii of Young, Massive Star Clusters in Two LEGUS Galaxies
• The Importance of Nebular Continuum and Line Emission in Observations of Young Massive Star Clusters
• Radii of Young Star Clusters in Nearby Galaxies
• A model for the formation of stellar associations and clusters from giant molecular clouds
• Star cluster formation in the most extreme environments: Insights from the HiPEEC survey
• Hubble Space Telescope ACS Imaging of the GOALS Sample: Quantitative Structural Properties of Nearby Luminous Infrared Galaxies with L_IR > 10^{11.4} L_sun
• The young star cluster population of M51 with LEGUS - II. Testing environmental dependencies
• Analysing star cluster populations with stochastic models: the HST/WFC3 sample of clusters in M83
• The Kennicutt-Schmidt Law and Gas Scale Height in Luminous and Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• The Fraction of Stars That Form in Clusters in Different Galaxies
• Which feedback mechanisms dominate in the high-pressure environment of the Central Molecular Zone?
• Resolving the Stellar Populations in the Circumnuclear Ring of NGC 7469
• Star Cluster Catalogs for the LEGUS Dwarf Galaxies
• If it does not kill them, it makes them stronger: collisional evolution of star clusters with tidal shocks
• The Link Between the Formation Rates of Clusters and Stars in Galaxies
• The Age Distribution of Clusters in M83
• The Luminosity Function of Star Clusters in 20 Star-Forming Galaxies Based on Hubble Legacy Archive Photometry
• ALMA Multi-line Observations of the IR-bright Merger VV 114
• Luminosity profiles and sizes of massive star clusters in NGC 7252
• First constraints on the stellar mass function of star-forming clumps at the peak of cosmic star formation
• Star-forming Clumps in Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• Extended mid-infrared emission from VV 114: probing the birth of a ULIRG
• Star-formation histories of local luminous infrared galaxies
• Massive Star Cluster Formation and Destruction in Luminous Infrared Galaxies in GOALS
• The spatially resolved star formation history of mergers: A comparative study of the LIRGs IC1623, NGC6090, NGC2623, and Mice
• Young and intermediate-age massive star clusters
• A tight relation between the age distributions of stellar clusters and the properties of the interstellar medium in the host galaxy
• Young massive clusters in the interacting LIRG Arp 299: evidence for the dependence of star cluster formation and evolution on environment
• The Build-Up of Nuclear Stellar Cusps in Extreme Starburst Galaxies and Major Mergers
• Properties of the cluster population of NGC 1566 and their implications
• Pitfalls when observationally characterizing the relative formation rates of stars and stellar clusters in galaxies
• Highly turbulent gas on GMC-scales in NGC 3256, the nearest luminous infrared galaxy
• The Connection Between Galaxy Environment and the Luminosity Function Slopes of Star-Forming Regions
• Characterization of optically-selected star forming knots in (U)LIRGs
• A Very Large Array Survey of Luminous Extranuclear Star-forming Regions in Luminous Infrared Galaxies in GOALS
• Spatially-resolved Dense Molecular Gas Excitation in the Nearby LIRG VV 114
• What determines the mass of the most massive star cluster in a galaxy: statistics, physics or disruption?

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Formation and evolution of young massive clusters in galaxy mergers: the SMUGGLE view
• PHANGS-JWST First Results: Massive Young Star Clusters and New Insights from JWST Observations of NGC 1365
• Great Balls of FIRE II: The evolution and destruction of star clusters across cosmic time in a Milky Way-mass galaxy
• GOALS-JWST: Hidden Star Formation and Extended PAH Emission in the Luminous Infrared Galaxy VV 114
• GOALS-JWST: Revealing the Buried Star Clusters in the Luminous Infrared Galaxy VV 114
• Characterizing Compact 15-33 GHz Radio Continuum Sources in Local U/LIRGs
• High Resolution HST Imaging Survey of Local Star-Forming Galaxies I: Spatially-Resolved Obscured Star Formation with H$\alpha$ and Paschen-$\beta$ Recombination Lines
• The Role of AGN in Luminous Infrared Galaxies from the Multiwavelength Perspective
• HST viewing of spectacular star-forming trails behind ESO 137-001
• The Extended Local Supercluster
• The z = 9.625 Cosmic Gems Galaxy was a "Compact Blue Monster" Propelled by Massive Star Clusters
• Star Cluster Formation and Evolution in M101: An Investigation with the Legacy Extragalactic UV Survey
• Shockingly Effective: Cluster Winds as Engines of Feedback in Starburst Galaxy VV 114
• Massive star clusters and clumps in the collisional ring galaxy Arp 147
• Resolved properties of a luminous "hinge clump" in the compact group of galaxies NGC\,6845