Clusters, Clouds, and Correlations: Relating Young Clusters to Giant Molecular Clouds in M33 and M31

Abstract

We use young clusters and giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the galaxies M33 and M31 to constrain temporal and spatial scales in the star formation process. In M33, we compare the PHATTER catalogue of 1214 clusters with ages measured via colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) fitting to 444 GMCs identified from a new 35 pc resolution ALMA ${}^{12}$CO(2-1) survey. In M31, we compare the PHAT catalogue of 1249 clusters to 251 GMCs measured from a CARMA ${}^{12}$CO(1-0) survey with 20 pc resolution. Through two-point correlation analysis, we find that young clusters have a high probability of being near other young clusters, but correlation between GMCs is suppressed by the cloud identification algorithm. By comparing the positions, we find that younger clusters are closer to GMCs than older clusters. Through cross-correlation analysis of the M33 cluster data, we find that clusters are statistically associated when they are $\le$10 Myr old. Utilizing the high precision ages of the clusters, we find that clusters older than $\approx 18$ Myr are uncorrelated with the molecular ISM. Using the spatial coincidence of the youngest clusters and GMCs in M33, we estimate that clusters spend $\approx$4-6 Myr inside their parent GMC. Through similar analysis, we find that the GMCs in M33 have a total lifetime of $\approx 11$-15 Myr. We also develop a drift model and show that the above correlations can be explained if the clusters in M33 have a 5-10 km s${}^{-1}$ velocity dispersion relative to the molecular ISM.

arXiv comment14 pages, 13 figures, 1 tables, accepted for publication at MNRAS

References in corpus (65)

• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation
• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
• Theory of Star Formation
• The CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor
• The GALEX Ultraviolet Atlas of Nearby Galaxies
• Star Clusters Across Cosmic Time
• The CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor From Infrared Dust Emission Across the Local Group
• Riding the Spiral Waves: Implications of Stellar Migration for the Properties of Galactic Disks
• On the fraction of star formation occurring in bound stellar clusters
• A Survey of Local Group Galaxies Currently Forming Stars. I. UBVRI Photometry of Stars in M31 and M33
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury
• The Second Survey of the Molecular Clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud by NANTEN. II. Star Formation
• A z=0 Multi-wavelength Galaxy Synthesis I: A WISE and GALEX Atlas of Local Galaxies
• The lifecycle of molecular clouds in nearby star-forming disc galaxies
• Fast and inefficient star formation due to short-lived molecular clouds and rapid feedback
• Modeling UV Radiation Feedback from Massive Stars: II. Dispersal of Star-Forming Giant Molecular Clouds by Photoionization and Radiation Pressure
• An uncertainty principle for star formation. I. Why galactic star formation relations break down below a certain spatial scale
• Giant Molecular Clouds in M33 -- II. High Resolution Observations
• The Scale Dependence of the Molecular Gas Depletion Time in M33
• The Exciting Lives of Giant Molecular Clouds
• Breakdown of Kennicutt-Schmidt Law at GMC Scales in M33
• Giant Molecular Cloud Catalogues for PHANGS-ALMA: Methods and Initial Results
• The Star Formation Efficiency per Free Fall Time in Nearby Galaxies
• New Constraints on the ${}^{12}$CO(2-1)/(1-0) Line Ratio Across Nearby Disc Galaxies
• Giant Molecular Clouds in the Local Group Galaxy M33
• Star formation in M33: multiwavelength signatures across the disk
• A Portrait of Cold Gas in Galaxies at 60pc Resolution and a Simple Method to Test Hypotheses That Link Small-Scale ISM Structure to Galaxy-Scale Processes
• Low-J CO Line Ratios From Single Dish CO Mapping Surveys and PHANGS-ALMA
• ALMA Observations of the Antennae Galaxies: I. A New Window on a Prototypical Merger
• Graph-based interpretation of the Molecular Interstellar Medium Segmentation
• First Gaia Dynamics of the Andromeda System: DR2 Proper Motions, Orbits, and Rotation of M31 and M33
• An uncertainty principle for star formation - II. A new method for characterising the cloud-scale physics of star formation and feedback across cosmic history
• From molecules to Young Stellar Clusters: the star formation cycle across the M33 disk
• On the duration of the embedded phase of star formation
• Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury XVI. Star Cluster Formation Efficiency and the Clustered Fraction of Young Stars
• Connecting Young Star Clusters to CO Molecular Gas in NGC 7793 with ALMA-LEGUS
• The Spatial Relation between Young Star Clusters and Molecular Clouds in M 51 with LEGUS
• The Hierarchical Distribution of the Young Stellar Clusters in Six Local Star Forming Galaxies
• How Galactic Environment affects the Dynamical State of Molecular Clouds and their Star Formation Efficiency
• Molecular and Atomic Gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud II. Three-dimensional Correlation between CO and HI
• GMC Evolutions in the Nearby Spiral Galaxy M33
• Physical Conditions in Molecular Clouds in the Arm and Interarm Regions of M51
• PHAT Stellar Cluster Survey. II. Andromeda Project Cluster Catalog
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury: Triangulum Extended Region (PHATTER) I. Ultraviolet to Infrared Photometry of 22 Million Stars in M33
• Environmental dependence of the molecular cloud lifecycle in 54 main sequence galaxies
• The Hubble Space Telescope Survey of M31 Satellite Galaxies I. RR Lyrae-based Distances and Refined 3D Geometric Structure
• The Spatial Distribution of the Young Stellar Clusters in the Star Forming Galaxy NGC 628
• Star formation in M33: Spitzer photometry of discrete sources
• Kinematics of the Atomic ISM in M33 on 80 pc scales
• Evolution of Molecular and Atomic Gas Phases in the Milky Way
• Molecular Gas Velocity Dispersions in the Andromeda Galaxy
• Toward an internally consistent astronomical distance scale
• Spatial Decorrelation of Young Stars and Dense Gas as a Probe of the Star Formation-Feedback Cycle in Galaxies
• The Gas-Star Formation Cycle in Nearby Star-forming Galaxies II. Resolved Distributions of CO and H$\alpha$ Emission for 49 PHANGS Galaxies
• Systematic Variations of CO J=2-1/1-0 Ratio in The Barred Spiral Galaxy M83
• The population of Young Stellar Clusters throughout the disk of M33
• A scaling relation for the molecular cloud lifetime in Milky Way-like galaxies
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury: Triangulum Extended Region (PHATTER). III. The Mass Function of Young Star Clusters in M33
• PHANGS: Constraining Star Formation Timescales Using the Spatial Correlations of Star Clusters and Giant Molecular Clouds
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury: Triangulum Extended Region (PHATTER). IV. Star Cluster Catalog
• The Dependence of the Hierarchical Distribution of Star Clusters on Galactic Environment
• Dense molecular globulettes and the dust arc towards the runaway O star AE Aur (HD 34078)
• Gibbs Point Process Model for Young Star Clusters in M33

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Binary progenitor systems for Type Ic supernovae
• Rubin Observatory LSST Stars Milky Way and Local Volume Star Clusters Roadmap
• ACA CO(J=2-1) Mapping of the Nearest Spiral Galaxy M33. II. Exploring the Evolution of Giant Molecular Clouds
• Molecular cloud matching in CO and dust in M33 II. Physical properties of giant molecular clouds
• A comprehensive catalogue of OB cluster candidates in M31 and their association with giant molecular clouds