Superstellar clusters and their impact on their host galaxies

Abstract

We review the properties of young superstellar clusters and the impact that their evolution has in their host galaxies. In particular we look at the two different star-forming feedback modes: positive and negative feedback. The development of strong isotropic winds emanating from massive clusters, capable of disrupting the remains of the parental cloud as well as causing the large-scale restructuring of the surrounding ISM, has usually been taken as a negative feedback agent. Here we show the impact that radiative cooling has on the resultant outflows and then, as an extreme example, we infer from the observations of M82 the detailed inner structure of supergalactic winds and define through numerical simulations the ingredients required to match such structures.We also show how when radiative cooling becomes significant within the star cluster volume itself (~ 30% of the deposited energy), the force of gravity takes over and drives in situ all the matter deposited by winds and supernovae into several generations of star formation. A situation in which the mass deposition rate from the star cluster instead of causing a wind as in the adiabatic solution, turns into a positive feedback star-forming mode equal to the star formation rate.