A SAMPLE OF OB STARS THAT FORMED IN THE FIELD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 830 Dennison Building, 500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1042 (United States)
We present a sample of 14 OB stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud that meet strong criteria for having formed under extremely sparse star-forming conditions in the field. These stars are a minimum of 28 pc in projection from other OB stars, and they are centered within symmetric, round H II regions. They show no evidence of bow shocks, implying that the targets are not transverse runaway stars. Their radial velocities relative to local H I also indicate that they are not line-of-sight runaway stars. A friends-of-friends analysis shows that nine of the objects present a few low-mass companion stars, with typical mass ratios for the two highest-mass stars of around 0.1. This further substantiates that these OB stars formed in place, and that they can and do form in extremely sparse conditions. This poses strong constraints on theories of star formation and challenges proposed relations between cluster mass and maximum stellar mass.
- OSTI ID:
- 22126795
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 768, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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