Overview of the Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) project

The Massive Young Star-Forming Complex Study in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) seeks to characterize 20 OB-dominated young clusters and their environs at distances d ≤ 4 kpc using imaging detectors on the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, and the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope. The observational goals are to construct catalogs of star-forming complex stellar members with well-defined criteria and maps of nebular gas (particularly of hot X-ray-emitting plasma) and dust. A catalog of MYStIX Probable Complex Members with several hundred OB stars and 31,784 low-mass pre-main sequence stars is assembled. This sample and related data products will be used to seek new empirical constraints on theoretical models of cluster formation and dynamics, mass segregation, OB star formation, star formation triggering on the periphery of H II regions, and the survivability of protoplanetary disks in H II regions. This paper gives an introduction and overview of the project, covering the data analysis methodology and application to two star-forming regions: NGC 2264 and the Trifid Nebula. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We thank J. Forbrich and P. Teixeira (Univ. Vienna) for useful discussion about NGC 2264. The MYStIX project is supported at Penn State by NASA grant NNX09AC74G, NSF grant AST-0908038, and theChandra ACIS Team contract SV4- 74018 (PIs: G. Garmire & L. Townsley), issued by the Chandra X-ray Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of NASA under contract NAS8-03060. M. S. Povich was supported by an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship under award AST-0901646. This research made use of data products from the Chandra Data Archive and the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California Institute of Technology) under a contract with NASA. The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the U.K. This work is based in part on data obtained as part of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey and in part on data obtained in UKIRT Director’s Discretionary Time. This research used data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. The HAWK-I near-infrared observations were collected with the High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager instrument on the ESO 8 m Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory, Chile, under ESO programme 60.A-9284(K). This research has also made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services, the SIMBAD database operated at the Centre de Donnees ´ Astronomique de Strasbourg, and SAOImage DS9 software developed by Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Circumstellar disks and planets. Science cases for next-generation optical/infrared long-baseline interferometers

We present a review of the interplay between the evolution of circumstellar disks and the formation of planets, both from the perspective of theoretical models and dedicated observations. Based on this, we identify and discuss fundamental questions concerning the formation and evolution of circumstellar disks and planets which can be addressed in the near future with optical and infrared long-baseline interferometers. Furthermore, the importance of complementary observations with long-baseline (sub)millimeter interferometers and high-sensitivity infrared observatories is outlined.Comment: 83 pages; Accepted for publication in "Astronomy and Astrophysics Review"; The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

Low-mass and sub-stellar eclipsing binaries in stellar clusters

We highlight the importance of eclipsing double-line binaries in our understanding on star formation and evolution. We review the recent discoveries of low-mass and sub-stellar eclipsing binaries belonging to star-forming regions, open clusters, and globular clusters identified by ground-based surveys and space missions with high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up. These discoveries provide benchmark systems with known distances, metallicities, and ages to calibrate masses and radii predicted by state-of-the-art evolutionary models to a few percent. We report their density and discuss current limitations on the accuracy of the physical parameters. We discuss future opportunities and highlight future guidelines to fill gaps in age and metallicity to improve further our knowledge of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, no table. Review pape

Relativistic Dynamics and Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals

It is now well-established that a dark, compact object (DCO), very likely a massive black hole (MBH) of around four million solar masses is lurking at the centre of the Milky Way. While a consensus is emerging about the origin and growth of supermassive black holes (with masses larger than a billion solar masses), MBHs with smaller masses, such as the one in our galactic centre, remain understudied and enigmatic. The key to understanding these holes - how some of them grow by orders of magnitude in mass - lies in understanding the dynamics of the stars in the galactic neighbourhood. Stars interact with the central MBH primarily through their gradual inspiral due to the emission of gravitational radiation. Also stars produce gases which will subsequently be accreted by the MBH through collisions and disruptions brought about by the strong central tidal field. Such processes can contribute significantly to the mass of the MBH and progress in understanding them requires theoretical work in preparation for future gravitational radiation millihertz missions and X-ray observatories. In particular, a unique probe of these regions is the gravitational radiation that is emitted by some compact stars very close to the black holes and which could be surveyed by a millihertz gravitational wave interferometer scrutinizing the range of masses fundamental to understanding the origin and growth of supermassive black holes. By extracting the information carried by the gravitational radiation, we can determine the mass and spin of the central MBH with unprecedented precision and we can determine how the holes "eat" stars that happen to be near them.Comment: Update from the first version, 151 pages, accepted for publication @ Living Reviews in Relativit

Two-Wind Interaction Models of the Proplyds in the Orion Nebula

Many low-mass stars in the Orion nebula are associated with very compact (~= 1 arcsec) emission knots, known variously as proplyds, PIGs or LV knots. Some of these knots are teardrop-shaped, with ``tails'' pointing away from the massive star Theta 1 Ori C, which is the principal exciting star of the nebula. We discuss models of such knots, which invoke the interaction of the fast stellar wind from Theta 1 Ori C with a transonic photoevaporated flow from the surface of an accretion disk around a young low-mass star. We review previous analytic work and compare the results of the model with the observed brightnesses, morphologies and emission line profiles of the knots, as well as presenting new results from numerical hydrodynamical simulations.Comment: 10 pages, 3 included figures, LaTeX, uses crckapb.sty. To appear in: IAU Symposium 182 - Herbig-Haro flows and the birth of low mass stars (B. Reipurth & C. Bertout, eds.). Kluwer, Dordrecht. Also available at http://genesis.astrosmo.unam.mx/~will/papers/chamonix.htm

The Eagle Nebula's fingers - pointers to the earliest stages of star formation?

Molecular line, millimetre/submillimetre continuum, and mid-IR observations are reported of the opaque fingers which cross the Eagle Nebula. The fingers are surprisingly warm when viewed in the CO J= 3-2 lines, with kinetic temperatures approaching 60 K, although the lines are relatively narrow. Most of the mass in the fingers is concentrated in cores which lie at the tips of the fingers, and contain from similar to 10 to 60 M., representing 55-80% of the mass of the individual fingers. The integrated mass contained in the three fingers and the nearby extended material is similar to 200 M.. The velocity fields of the gas are complex and the material is very clumpy. The best evidence for coherent velocity structure is seen running along the central finger, which has a velocity gradient similar to 1.7 km s(-1) pc(-1). The fingers contain several embedded submm continuum cores, with the most intense located at the tips of the fingers. The continuum spectra of these cores shows that they are much cooler, T-dust similar to 20 K, than T-gas similar to 60 K of their respective fingers. A simple thermal and chemical model of a finger was developed to study the physical environment, which takes into account the external UV illumination (similar to 1700 G(0)), and the chemical and thermal structure of a finger.The model predictions are consistent with all of the available observations. The fingers appear to have been formed after primordial dense clumps in the original cloud were irradiated by the light of its OB stars. These clumps then shielded material lying behind from the photoevaporative dispersal of the cloud, and facilitated the formation of the finger structures. The cores in the tips of the fingers appear to be at a very early stage of pre-protostellar development: there are no embedded infrared sources or molecular outflows present. The pressure inside the cores is just less than that of the surrounding gas, allowing them to be compressed by the external pressure. The cores are probably just starting the final stages of collapse, which will lead to the formation of a condensed, warm object. It is well known that such characteristics are expected from the earliest stages of objects popularly known as 'protostars'. The cores in the tips of the Eagle Nebula's fingers have characteristics similar to those expected to occur in the earliest stages of protostellar formation.</p

Star Formation with ALMA

Stars are believed to form from interstellar material through the gravitational collapse of dusty clouds. Interstellar medium is a very dynamical environment in which clouds of atomic gas (and its associated dust counterpart) form in warm medium fragments, perhaps as a result of turbulence or the passage of shock, and subsequently cool down and condense. Although the dust is a tiny fraction (of order 1%) of the total material mass, it plays a major role in the cloud evolution because its opacity can shield the cloud center from the interstellar UV field and dust surfaces act as a catalyst on which molecular hydrogen can form. For high enough column density, the combined effect of dust shielding and self-shielding of H 22 turn the initially predominantly atomic gas into molecular form. H 22 forms first, but more and more complex species such as CO, CN, and HCN, form during cloud evolution