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Massive Star Formation in the Sparsest Environments

Part of: IAU Issue 315 - From Interstellar Clouds...

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2016

Sally Oey  and
Joel B. Lamb
Sally Oey
Affiliation:
Astronomy Department, University of Michigan, 311 West Hall, 1085 S. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1107, USA email: [email protected]
Joel B. Lamb
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Sciences, Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY 11530, USA
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Abstract

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There is growing evidence that massive stars sometimes form in extremely sparse environments. The RIOTS4 survey presents a variety of evidence supporting this scenario, including a sample of 14 OB stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) that appear to have formed in situ as field stars. This is based on the presence of dense, symmetric HII regions hosting apparent non-runaway stars. We also present a spatially complete IMF of SMC field OB stars for masses > 7 M⊙, showing that the slope is much steeper than the Salpeter value. The binary fraction among field OB stars is also the same as in clusters, based on a RIOTS4 subsample. These results suggest a relative, but incomplete, suppression of massive star formation in the sparsest regimes.

Keywords

stars: formationstars: early-typebinaries: spectroscopicgalaxies: star clustersgalaxies: stellar contentMagellanic Clouds
Type
Poster Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 11 , Symposium S315: From Interstellar Clouds to Star-Forming Galaxies: Universal Processes? , August 2015 , E59
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

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