Pre-supernova feedback mechanisms drive the destruction of molecular clouds in nearby star-forming disc galaxies - Sorbonne Université
Journal Articles Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Year : 2020

Pre-supernova feedback mechanisms drive the destruction of molecular clouds in nearby star-forming disc galaxies

J Kruijssen
Brent Groves
Simon C O Glover
Jonathan D Henshaw
Cinthya N Herrera
  • Function : Author
Jaeyeon Kim
Adam K Leroy
  • Function : Author
Alessandro Razza
Erik Rosolowsky
Eva Schinnerer
Ashley T Barnes
Frank Bigiel
Guillermo A Blanc
  • Function : Author
Daniel Dale
Eric Emsellem
Christopher M Faesi
  • Function : Author
Kathryn Grasha
Ralf S Klessen
Kathryn Kreckel
Daizhong Liu
Steven N Longmore
  • Function : Author
Sharon E Meidt
  • Function : Author
Miguel Querejeta
Toshiki Saito
Jiayi Sun
Antonio Usero
J M Diederik Kruijssen
  • Function : Author
Jenny J Kim
  • Function : Author

Abstract

It is a major open question which physical processes stop the accretion of gas onto giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and limit the efficiency at which gas is converted into stars within these GMCs. While feedback from supernova explosions has been the popular feedback mechanism included in simulations of galaxy formation and evolution, 'early' feedback mechanisms such as stellar winds, photoionisation and radiation pressure are expected to play an important role in dispersing the gas after the onset of star formation. These feedback processes typically take place on small scales (∼ 10 − 100 pc) and their effects have therefore been difficult to constrain in environments other than the Milky Way. We apply a novel statistical method to ∼ 1 resolution maps of CO and H emission across a sample of nine nearby disc galaxies, in order to measure the time over which GMCs are dispersed by feedback from young, high-mass stars, as a function of the galactic environment. We find that GMCs are typically dispersed within ∼ 3 Myr after the emergence of unembedded high-mass stars, showing no significant trend with galactocentric radius. Comparison with analytical predictions demonstrates that, independently of the environment, early feedback mechanisms (particularly photoionisation and stellar winds) play a crucial role in dispersing GMCs and limiting their star formation efficiency in nearby galaxies. Finally, we show that the efficiency at which the energy injected by these early feedback mechanisms couples with the parent GMC is relatively low (a few tens of per cent), such that the vast majority of momentum and energy emitted by the young stellar populations escapes the parent GMC.
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Dates and versions

hal-03556900 , version 1 (04-02-2022)

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Mélanie Chevance, J Kruijssen, Mark R Krumholz, Brent Groves, Benjamin W Keller, et al.. Pre-supernova feedback mechanisms drive the destruction of molecular clouds in nearby star-forming disc galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2020, 509 (1), pp.272-288. ⟨10.1093/mnras/stab2938⟩. ⟨hal-03556900⟩
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