Stellar contents of two young open clusters: NGC 663 and 654

UBVRI CCD photometry in a wide field around two young open clusters, NGC 663 and 654, has been carried out. Hα and polarimetric observations for the cluster NGC 654 have also been obtained. We use the photometric data to construct colour–colour and colour–magnitude diagrams, from which we can investigate the reddening, age, mass and evolutionary states of the stellar contents of the these clusters. The reddening across the cluster regions is found to be variable. There is evidence for anomalous reddening law in both clusters; however, more infrared and polarimetric data are needed to conclude about the reddening law. Both clusters are situated at about a distance of 2.4 kpc. Star formation in both clusters is found to be a continuous process. In the case of NGC 663, star formation seems to have taken place sequentially, in the sense that formation of low-mass stars precedes the formation of most massive stars. Whereas, in the case of NGC 654, formation of low-mass stars did not cease after the formation of most massive stars in the cluster.     

Properties of the process of massive star formation

The dynamics of protostellar envelopes around forming massive stars is analysed and the main stages of the process of massive star formation are identified. It is shown that massive stars can be formed in the outer layers of giant molecular cloud cores. Special conditions are necessary for the formation of massive stars.     

Properties of massive stars in four clusters of the VVV survey

The evolution of massive stars is only partly understood. Observational constraints can be obtained from the study of massive stars located in young massive clusters. The ESO Public Survey “VISTA Variables in the Vía Lácteá (VVV)” discovered several new clusters hosting massive stars. We present an analysis of massive stars in four of these new clusters. Our aim is to provide constraints on stellar evolution and to better understand the relation between different types of massive stars. We use the radiative transfer code CMFGEN to analyse K-band spectra of twelve stars with spectral types ranging from O and B to WN and WC. We derive the stellar parameters of all targets as well as surface abundances for a subset of them. In the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, the Wolf–Rayet stars are more luminous or hotter than the O stars. From the log(C/N)–log(C/He) diagram, we show quantitatively that WN stars are more chemically evolved than O stars, WC stars being more evolved than WN stars. Mass loss rates among Wolf–Rayet stars are a factor of 10 larger than for O stars, in agreement with previous findings.     

A Numerical Simulation Study of Mass Segregation in Embedded Stellar Clusters

The initial condition of the formation of massive stars is still unclear at present. In particular, it is still debatable whether or not massive stars are formed in the cluster center. Some people considered from the viewpoint of time scale and thought that the mass segregation phenomena in embedded clusters means that the massive stars can only be born in the cluster center. In this paper we used the Monte Carlo method to make numerical simulation of the dynamical evolution of embedded clusters and the result is compared with the observations. It is assumed that at the initial time massive stars are randomly distributed. It was found that, due to the random motions of massive stars, temporary mass segregation may exist at certain times in the course of evolution of a given embedded cluster, and this phenomenon may be very prominent in some of them. It is pointed out that massive star formation in the center is not the only explanation for mass segregation in embedded clusters. In addition, dynamical friction from the gas can effectively reduce the time scale of the dynamical mass segregation. In consequence, the probability of temporary mass segregation is increased.     

Non-thermal emission processes in massive binaries

In this paper, I present a general discussion of several astrophysical processes likely to play a role in the production of non-thermal emission in massive stars, with emphasis on massive binaries. Even though the discussion will start in the radio domain where the non-thermal emission was first detected, the census of physical processes involved in the non-thermal emission from massive stars shows that many spectral domains are concerned, from the radio to the very high energies. First, the theoretical aspects of the non-thermal emission from early-type stars will be addressed. The main topics that will be discussed are respectively the physics of individual stellar winds and their interaction in binary systems, the acceleration of relativistic electrons, the magnetic field of massive stars, and finally the non-thermal emission processes relevant to the case of massive stars. Second, this general qualitative discussion will be followed by a more quantitative one, devoted to the most probable scenario where non-thermal radio emitters are massive binaries. I will show how several stellar, wind and orbital parameters can be combined in order to make some semi-quantitative predictions on the high-energy counterpart to the non-thermal emission detected in the radio domain. These theoretical considerations will be followed by a census of results obtained so far, and related to this topic. These results concern the radio, the visible, the X-ray and the γ-ray domains. Prospects for the very high energy γ-ray emission from massive stars will also be addressed. Two particularly interesting examples—one O-type and one Wolf-Rayet binary—will be considered in details. Finally, strategies for future developments in this field will be discussed.     

On the origin of high-velocity runaway stars

We explore the hypothesis that some high-velocity runaway stars attain their peculiar velocities in the course of exchange encounters between hard massive binaries and a very massive star (either an ordinary  50–100 M_⊙  star or a more massive one, formed through runaway mergers of ordinary stars in the core of a young massive star cluster). In this process, one of the binary components becomes gravitationally bound to the very massive star, while the second one is ejected, sometimes with a high speed. We performed three-body scattering experiments and found that early B-type stars (the progenitors of the majority of neutron stars) can be ejected with velocities of  ≳200–400 km s⁻¹  (typical of pulsars), while  3–4 M_⊙  stars can attain velocities of  ≳300–400 km s⁻¹  (typical of the bound population of halo late B-type stars). We also found that the ejected stars can occasionally attain velocities exceeding the Milky Ways's escape velocity.     

The effects of Population III stars on the chemical and photometrical evolution of ellipticals

We have studied the effects of a hypothetical initial generation containing very massive stars [   M > 100 M_⊙  , pair-creation supernovae] on the chemical and photometric evolution of elliptical galaxies. To this purpose, we have computed the evolution of a typical elliptical galaxy with luminous mass of the order of  10¹¹ M_⊙  and adopted chemical evolution models already tested to reproduce the main features of ellipticals. We have tested several sets of yields for very massive zero-metallicity stars: these stars should produce quite different amounts of heavy elements than lower-mass stars. We found that the effects of Population III stars on the chemical enrichment is negligible if only one or two generations of such stars occurred, whereas they produce quite different results from the standard models if they continuously formed for a period not shorter than 0.1 Gyr. In this case, the results are at variance with the main observational constraints of ellipticals such as the average  [〈α/ Fe〉_*]  ratio in stars and the integrated colours. Therefore, we conclude that if Population III stars ever existed they must have been present for a very short period of time and their effects on the following evolution of the parent galaxy must have been negligible. This effect is minimum if a more realistic model with initial infall of gas rather than the classic monolithic model is adopted. Ultimately, we conclude that there is no need to invoke a generation of very massive stars in ellipticals to explain their chemical and photometric properties.     

Why do we see so few black holes in massive binaries?

We offer a simple explanation for the small number of black holes observed in pairs with massive stars. In detached massive binaries, spherically symmetric accretion takes place. This accretion could result in effective energy release in the hard band only if the equipartition of the gravitational and magnetic energy of plasma is established (Shvartsman’s theorem). However, we show that due to the magnetic exhaust effect this equilibrium is virtually never established for the actual magnetic fields observed on massive stars: Shvartsman’s theorem does not work. As a result, it is virtually impossible to detect black holes in detached massive binaries by currently available means (mainly, through X-ray observations).     

Massive black holes in nuclei of galaxies and quasars

In the first part of the paper the known results on the gravitational interaction of a massive black hole with the surrounding stars in a galactic nucleus are discussed. The tidal disruption of stars in close encounters with a black hole is reviewed. Expressions for the flux of stars on a black hole are given, taking into account energy and angular momentum diffusion of stellar orbits. The scenario of star disruption and accretion of the released stellar matter is depicted. The growth of a black hole in a typical galactic nucleus on account of gas accretion from disrupted stars is discussed. A comparison with the upper limit to the luminosity of the nucleus of our Galaxy puts rather severe constraints on the mass of a hypothetical black hole at the galactic centre. Possible mechanisms preventing the formation and growth of black holes in normal galactic nuclei are discussed.The second part of the paper (Section 8) deals with the hypothesis that massive black holes are the primary energy sources in active galaxies and quasars. The luminosity requirements of bright quasars and weak Seyferts can probably be accounted for in such a model, but there are difficulties in explaining the intermediate range. Mass ejection from Seyferts and quasars is not a severe problem. The same applies to the spectrum. A much more serious objection is the observed periodic and quasi-periodic variability. Another unsatisfactory feature of this hypothesis is that one needs two different evolutionary tracks for quasars and active galaxies, and for normal galaxies.     

恒星形成过程中的天体物理现象

恒星形成于分子云环境中。近30多年的观测研究使得天文学家对小质量恒星的形成有了相对明确的认识：小质量恒星通过坍缩、吸积和外向流的路标而形成。至于大质量恒星，其形成过程还存在着许多不确定因素，现有的观测证据表明：大质量恒星也可能通过坍缩、吸积和外向流的路标来形成，但也不排除在星团中通过中小质量恒星聚合而成的因素。大质量恒星形成与致密电离氢区(UCHII)成协较好，而与大质量恒星形成区成协的分子云环境中，既有大质量恒星也有小质量恒星形成。综述了恒星形成各个阶段的观测结果和研究现状以及成协的天体物理环境情况。未来的观测和研究重点在于，大质量恒星形成以及星团环境中的恒星形成。     

The Effect of the Initial Mass Function of Stars on the Burst Rate of GRBs

For the mechanism of production of γ-ray bursts (GRBs) it is rather generally recognized that the long-term γ-ray burst (LGRB) originates from the deaths of massive stars while the short-term γ-ray burst (SGRB) originates from the merging of close binaries. Therefore the speculation naturally follows that the number of LGRBs is directly proportional to the star formation rate (SFR). However, it is indicated from recent data analyses that this speculation does not fit the observations very well. It is considered that only massive stars with masses greater than a certain critical mass can produce the LGRB, so the initial mass function (IMF) of stars can significantly affect the production rate of LGRBs. In this paper it is considered that the IMF of stars can be used to explain the observed number distribution of the LGRBs with the redshift, and this has led to some good results.     

Sensitivity of the C and O production on the 3α rate

We investigate the dependence of the carbon and oxygen production in stars on the 3α rate by varying the energy of the 0⁺ ₂-state of ¹²C and determine the resulting yields for a selection of low-mass, intermediate-mass and massive stars. The yields are obtained using modern stellar evolution codes that follow the entire evolution of massive stars, including the supernova explosion, and consider in detail the 3^rd dredge-up process during the thermally pulsating asymptotic giant branch of low-mass and intermediate-mass stars. Our results show that the C and O production in massive stars depends strongly on the initial mass, and that it is crucial to follow the entire evolution. A rather strong C production during the He-shell flashes compared to quiescent He burning leads to a lower sensitivity of the C and O production in low-mass and intermediate-mass stars on the 3α-rate than predicted in our previous work. In particular, the C production of intermediate-mass stars seems to have a maximum close to the actual value of the 0⁺ ₂ energy level of ¹²C. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Massive stars in the galactic center

The relatively brief history of infrared observations and quantitative analysis of massive stars in the Galactic Center is reviewed. Current observational and the theoretical status is also reported: A new generation of NLTE wind blanketed models, together with high S/N spectra of the hot star population are allowing one, for the first time, to perform metal abundance determinations (Fe, Si, Mg, Na, etc). Metallicity studies of hot stars in the IR will provide major constraints not only on the theory of evolution of massive stars but also on our efforts to solve the puzzle of the central parsecs of the Galaxy. Preliminary results are presented.     

Radiation hydrodynamical instabilities in cosmological and galactic ionization fronts

Ionization fronts, the sharp radiation fronts behind which H/He ionizing photons from massive stars and galaxies propagate through space, were ubiquitous in the universe from its earliest times. The cosmic dark ages ended with the formation of the first primeval stars and galaxies a few hundred Myr after the Big Bang. Numerical simulations suggest that stars in this era were very massive, 25–500 solar masses, with H(II) regions of up to 30,000 light-years in diameter. We present three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical calculations that reveal that the I-fronts of the first stars and galaxies were prone to violent instabilities, enhancing the escape of UV photons into the early intergalactic medium (IGM) and forming clumpy media in which supernovae later exploded. The enrichment of such clumps with metals by the first supernovae may have led to the prompt formation of a second generation of low-mass stars, profoundly transforming the nature of the first protogalaxies. Cosmological radiation hydrodynamics is unique because ionizing photons coupled strongly to both gas flows and primordial chemistry at early epochs, introducing a hierarchy of disparate characteristic timescales whose relative magnitudes can vary greatly throughout a given calculation. We describe the adaptive multistep integration scheme we have developed for the self-consistent transport of both cosmological and galactic ionization fronts.     

Stellar dynamics in young clusters: the formation of massive runaways and very massive runaway mergers

In the present paper we combine an N-body code that simulates the dynamics of young dense stellar systems with a massive star evolution handler that accounts in a realistic way for the effects of stellar wind mass loss. We discuss two topics.

1. The formation and the evolution of very massive stars (with masses >120 M_⊙) is followed in detail. These very massive stars are formed in the cluster core as a consequence of the successive (physical) collisions of the 10–20 most massive stars in the cluster (this process is known as ‘runaway merging’). The further evolution is governed by stellar wind mass loss during core hydrogen and core helium burning (the WR phase of very massive stars). Our simulations reveal that, as a consequence of runaway merging in clusters with solar and supersolar values, massive black holes can be formed, but with a maximum mass ≈70 M_⊙. In low-metallicity clusters, however, it cannot be excluded that the runaway-merging process is responsible for pair-instability supernovae or for the formation of intermediate-mass black holes with a mass of several 100 M_⊙.
2. Massive runaways can be formed via the supernova explosion of one of the components in a binary system (the Blaauw scenario), or via dynamical interaction of a single star and a binary or between two binaries in a star cluster. We explore the possibility that the most massive runaways (e.g. ζ Pup, λ Cep, BD+43°3654) are the product of the collision and merger of two or three massive stars.

     

Thermal generation of magnetic fields with radiation pressure in rotating stars

It has been suggested by Biermann that in rotating stars the electron partial pressure could generate a toroidal magnetic field of a considerable strength. However, Mestel and Roxburgh have shown recently that the generation of such a toroidal magnetic field could almost completely be suppressed when a weak primodial poloidal magnetic field exists in the star. In this paper it is shown that a toroidal magnetic field of a moderate strength could be generated even in the presence of a primodial poloidal magnetic field, if the effect of radiation pressure is taken into consideration. This considered mechanism is effective for moderately massive stars, and numerical estimate indicates that in A type stars a toroidal magnetic field of the order of a thousand gauss can be generated near the surface within the time scale of the evolution of the star.Visiting Scientist to the High Altitude Observatory on leave of absence from the Department of Astronomy, University of Tokyo, Japan.     

Bursts of star formation caused by disk-halo mass exchange

It is well known that galaxies accumulating large quantities of gas undergo violent bursts of star formation. This is believed to be due to tidal interactions of galaxies leading to the infall of gas into their central regions. Bursts of star formation in this scenario are transitory phenomena and can be induced only by external sources.However, in some cases there is no direct evidence of tidal interactions in starburst galaxies.We discuss another possibility of bursting phenomena in galaxies connected with nonlinear feedback processes in mass-exchange between components of star-forming region. We consider a three-component model including cold clouds, warm gas and massive stars and take into account the delay processes in the transformation of hot gas ejected by massive stars and evaporated from cold phase, into the warm phase. Self-regulating mechanism of phase transition of small clouds into warm gas due to heating radiation of massive stars is also taken into account.The analysis of stability of the system shows that it could be unstable even in case of a small efficiency in the birth of massive stars. The evolution of unstable nonlinear perturbations leads to the development of self-sustained nonlinear oscillations of star formation.     

Sensitivity in the models of massive stars

Two related problems are discussed in this article: The width of the Main-Sequence of massive stars and sensitivity peatures introduced into the evolutionary tracks of massive stars by mass loss and core-overshooting. It is suggested that core-overshooting may not necessarily be implied by the observations of the width of the Main-Sequence band. It is also noted that models evolved with both mass loss and/or core-overshooting reveal the presence of a large and unexplained expansion of the stellar models under certain conditions. This sensitivity feature would seem to be a fundamental feature inherent to the structure of massive stars.     

Interaction between a high-velocity star and a hot dense cloud

In order to investigate the fate of a high-velocity star confined to a massive gas cloud, the hydrodynamic behavior of a radiation-dominated flow past a finite-size gravitating object is calculated. Such a study is important in the context of quasars and active galactic nuclei, since large gas clouds have been suggested to be associated with the phenomena occurring in these systems. In particular, we study the processes of mass and energy exchange between the ambient gas and the star. A significant result is that the effective accretion cross-section is found to be a substantial fraction of the stellar geometrical cross-section. Consequently, the buildup of massive stars via accretion of the surrouding gas may be important in determining the evolution of the system of stars confined to the cloud.     

On the propensity of the formation of massive clumps via fragmentation of driven shells

Early type massive stars drive thin, dense shells whose edges often show evidence of star-formation. The possibility of fragmentation of these shells, leading to the formation of putative star-forming clumps is examined with the aid of semi-analytic arguments. We also derive a mass-spectrum for clumps condensing out of these shells by performing Monte–Carlo simulations of the problem. By extending on results from our previous work on the stability of thin, dense shells, we argue that clump-mass estimated by other authors in the past, under a set of simplifying assumptions, are several orders of magnitude smaller than those calculated here. Using the expression for the fastest growing unstable mode in a shock-confined shell, we show that fragmentation of a typical shell can produce clumps with a typical mass ?10³  M_⊙. It is likely that such clumps could spawn a second generation of massive and/or intermediate-mass stars which could in turn, trigger the next cycle of star-formation. We suggest that the ratio of shell thickness-to-radius evolves only weakly with time. Calculations have been performed for stars of seven spectral types, ranging from B1 to O5. We separately consider the stability of supernova remnants.