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Title: Star Cluster Formation in Cosmological Simulations. II. Effects of Star Formation Efficiency and Stellar Feedback

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  3. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)

Here, the implementation of star formation and stellar feedback in cosmological simulations plays a critical role in shaping galaxy properties. In the first paper of the series, we presented a new method to model star formation as a collection of star clusters. In this paper, we improve the algorithm by eliminating accretion gaps, boosting momentum feedback, and introducing a subgrid initial bound fraction, $$f_i$$, that distinguishes cluster mass from stellar particle mass. We perform a suite of simulations with different star formation efficiency per freefall time $$\epsilon_{\rm ff}$$ and supernova momentum feedback intensity $$f_{\rm boost}$$. We find that the star formation history of a Milky Way-sized galaxy is sensitive to $$f_{\rm boost}$$, which allows us to constrain its value, $$f_{\rm boost}\approx5$$, in the current simulation setup. Changing $$\epsilon_{\rm ff}$$ from a few percent to 200\% has little effect on global galaxy properties. However, on smaller scales, the properties of star clusters are very sensitive to $$\epsilon_{\rm ff}$$. We find that $$f_i$$ increases with $$\epsilon_{\rm ff}$$ and cluster mass. Through the dependence on $$f_i$$, the shape of the cluster initial mass function varies strongly with $$\epsilon_{\rm ff}$$. The fraction of clustered star formation and maximum cluster mass increase with the star formation rate surface density, with the normalization of both relations dependent on $$\epsilon_{\rm ff}$$. The cluster formation timescale systematically decreases with increasing $$\epsilon_{\rm ff}$$. Local variations in the gas accretion history lead to a 0.25~dex scatter for the integral cluster formation efficiency. Joint constraints from all the observables prefer the runs that produce a median integral efficiency of 16%.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1469370
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1712.01219; FERMILAB-PUB-18-366-A; 1684467
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 861, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 47 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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A Superbubble Feedback Model for Galaxy Simulations text January 2014
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Studying the YMC population of M83: how long clusters remain embedded, their interaction with the ISM and implications for GC formation theories text January 2015
Probing the role of the galactic environment in the formation of stellar clusters; using M83 as a test bench text January 2015
Dark matter cores all the way down text January 2015
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Enhanced Momentum Feedback from Clustered Supernovae text January 2016
Observational Evidence of Dynamic Star Formation Rate in Milky Way Giant Molecular Clouds text January 2016
On the origin of the Schechter-like mass function of young star clusters in disk galaxies text January 2016
Testing Star Formation Laws in a Starburst Galaxy At Redshift 3 Resolved with ALMA text January 2017
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Star cluster formation in cosmological simulations – III. Dynamical and chemical evolution journal April 2019
The E-MOSAICS project: tracing galaxy formation and assembly with the age–metallicity distribution of globular clusters journal April 2019
Disruption of giant molecular clouds and formation of bound star clusters under the influence of momentum stellar feedback journal May 2019
Origins of scaling relations of globular cluster systems journal July 2019
Nuclear Star Clusters in Cosmological Simulations journal September 2018
Nuclear Star Clusters in Cosmological Simulations text January 2018
Star cluster formation in cosmological simulations. III. Dynamical and chemical evolution text January 2018
Origins of scaling relations of globular cluster systems text January 2019