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The formation of super-star clusters in disk and dwarf galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2011

Carsten Weidner
Affiliation:
SUPA, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS, UK email: cw60@st-andrews.ac.uk, iab1@st-andrews.ac.uk
Ian A. Bonnell
Affiliation:
SUPA, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS, UK email: cw60@st-andrews.ac.uk, iab1@st-andrews.ac.uk
Hans Zinnecker
Affiliation:
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam, Germany SOFIA Science Center, University of Stuttgart, Institut für Raumfahrtsyteme, Pfaffenwaldring 31, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany email: zinnecker@dsi.uni-stuttgart.de
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Abstract

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Super-star clusters are probably the largest star-forming entities in our local Universe, containing hundreds of thousands to millions of young stars usually within less than a few parsecs. While no such systems are known in the Milky Way (MW), they are found especially in pairs of interacting galaxies but also in some dwarf galaxies like R 136 in the Large Magelanic Cloud (LMC). With the use of SPH calculations we show that a natural explanation for this phenomenon is the presence of shear in normal spiral galaxies which facilitates the formation of low-density loose OB associations from giant molecular clouds (GMC) instead of dense super-star clusters. In contrast, in interacting galaxies and in dwarf galaxies, regions can collapse without having a large-scale sense of rotation. This lack of rotational support allows the giant molecular clouds to concentrate into a single, dense and gravitationally bound system.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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