Bibcode
Weidner, Carsten; Bonnell, Ian A.; Zinnecker, Hans
Bibliographical reference
Computational Star Formation, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium, Volume 270, p. 385-388
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4
2011
Citations
1
Refereed citations
1
Description
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.