Effects of stellar feedback on cores in STARFORGE

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
² Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany
³ Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
⁴ Institute of Astronomy, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University, ul. Grudziądzka 5, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
⁵ Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara St, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA

^★★ Corresponding author; kneralwar@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de

Received: 18 June 2024
Accepted: 9 September 2024

Abstract

Stars form in dense cores within molecular clouds, and newly formed stars influence their natal environments. How stellar feedback impacts core properties and evolution has been the subject of extensive investigation. We performed a hierarchical clustering (dendrogram) analysis of a STARFORGE (STAR FORmation in Gaseous Environments) simulation, modelling a giant molecular cloud to identify gas overdensities (cores) and study changes in their radius, mass, velocity dispersion, and virial parameter with respect to stellar feedback. We binned these cores on the basis of the fraction of gas affected by protostellar outflows, stellar winds, and supernovae and analysed the property distributions for each feedback bin. We find that cores that experience more feedback influence are smaller. Feedback notably enhances the velocity dispersion and virial parameter of the cores, more so than it reduces their radius. This is also evident in the linewidth–size relation, according to which cores in higher-feedback bins exhibit higher velocities than their similarly sized pristine counterparts. We conclude that stellar feedback mechanisms, which impart momentum to the molecular cloud, simultaneously compress and disperse the dense molecular gas.