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Yasuo Fukui

Publications and source records attributed to Yasuo Fukui.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Three-dimensional geometry and dust/gas ratios in massive star forming regions over the entire LMC as revealed by IRSF/SIRIUS survey

We derive the entire dust extinction (Av) map for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) estimated from the color excess at near-infrared wavelengths. Using the percentile method we recently adopted to evaluate Av distribution along the line of sight, we derive the three-dimensional(3D)Av maps of the three massive star forming regions of N44, N79 and N11 based on the IRSF/SIRIUS point source catalog. The 3D AV maps are compared with the hydrogen column densities N(H) of three different velocity components where one is of the LMC disk velocity and the other two are of velocities lower than the disk velocity. As a result, we obtain 3D dust geometry suggesting that gas collision is on-going between the different velocity components. We also find difference in the timing of the gas collision between the massive star forming regions, which indicates that the gas collision in N44, N79 and N11 occurred later than that in 30 Doradus. In addition, difference by a factor of two in Av/N(H) is found between the velocity components for N44, while significant difference is not found for N79 and N11. From the 3D geometry and Av/N(H) in each star forming region, we suggest that the massive star formation in N44 was induced by an external trigger of tidal interaction between the LMC and the SMC, while that in N79 and N11 is likely to have been induced by internal triggers such as gas converging from the galactic spiral arm and expansion of a supershell although the possibility of tidal interaction cannot be ruled out.

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Origin of the gamma-ray emission from supernova remnant HB9

HB9 (G160.9+2.6) is a mixed-morphology Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) at a distance of $\sim$0.6 kpc. Previous analyses revealed recombining plasma emission in X-rays and an expanding shell structure in HI and CO emission, which were correlating with the spatial extent of HB9. In GeV energies, HB9 was found to show extended gamma-ray emission with a morphology that is consistent with the radio continuum emission showing a log-parabola-type spectrum. The overlap reported between the gas data and the excess gamma-ray emission at the southern region of the SNR's shell could indicate a possible interaction between them. We searched for hadronic gamma-ray emission signature in the spectrum to uncover possible interaction between the molecular environment and the SNR. Here we report the results of the gamma-ray spectral modelling studies of HB9.

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Nobeyama 45 m Local Spur CO survey. I. Giant molecular filaments and cluster formation in the Vulpecula OB association

We have performed new large-scale $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O $J=$1-0 observations toward the Vulpecula OB association ($l \sim 60^\circ$) as part of the Nobeyama 45 m Local Spur CO survey project. Molecular clouds are distributed over $\sim 100$ pc, with local peaks at the Sh 2-86, Sh 2-87, and Sh 2-88 high-mass star-forming regions in the Vulpecula complex. The molecular gas is associated with the Local Spur, which corresponds to the nearest inter-arm region located between the Local Arm and the Sagittarius Arm. We discovered new giant molecular filaments (GMFs) in Sh 2-86, with a length of $\sim 30$ pc, width of $\sim 5$ pc, and molecular mass of $\sim 4\times 10^4\ M_{\odot}$. We also found that Sh 2-86 contains the three velocity components at 22, 27, and 33 km s$^{-1}$. These clouds and GMFs are likely to be physically associated with Sh 2-86 because they have high $^{12}$CO $J =$ 2-1 to $J =$ 1-0 intensity ratios and coincide with the infrared dust emission. The open cluster NGC 6823 exists at the common intersection of these clouds. We argue that the multiple cloud interaction scenario, including GMFs, can explain cluster formation in the Vulpecula OB association.

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First extragalactic measurement of the turbulence driving parameter: ALMA observations of the star-forming region N159E in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Studying the driving modes of turbulence is important for characterizing the impact of turbulence in various astrophysical environments. The driving mode of turbulence is parameterized by $b$, which relates the width of the gas density PDF to the turbulent Mach number; $b\approx 1/3$, $1$, and $0.4$ correspond to driving that is solenoidal, compressive, and a natural mixture of the two, respectively. In this work, we use high-resolution (sub-pc) ALMA $^{12}$CO ($J$ = $2-1$), $^{13}$CO ($J$ = $2-1$), and C$^{18}$O ($J$ = $2-1$) observations of filamentary molecular clouds in the star-forming region N159E (the Papillon Nebula) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to provide the first measurement of turbulence driving parameter in an extragalactic region. We use a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) analysis of the CO isotopologues to construct a gas density PDF, which we find to be largely log-normal in shape with some intermittent features indicating deviations from lognormality. We find that the width of the log-normal part of the density PDF is comparable to the supersonic turbulent Mach number, resulting in $b \approx 0.9$. This implies that the driving mode of turbulence in N159E is primarily compressive. We speculate that the compressive turbulence could have been powered by gravo-turbulent fragmentation of the molecular gas, or due to compression powered by H I flows that led to the development of the molecular filaments observed by ALMA in the region. Our analysis can be easily applied to study the nature of turbulence driving in resolved star-forming regions in the local as well as the high-redshift Universe.

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An Unbiased CO Survey Toward the Northern Region of the Small Magellanic Cloud with the Atacama Compact Array. I. Overview: CO Cloud Distributions

We have analyzed the data from a large-scale CO survey toward the northern region of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) obtained with the Atacama Compact Array (ACA) stand-alone mode of ALMA. The primary aim of this study is to comprehensively understand the behavior of CO as an H$_2$ tracer in a low-metallicity environment ($Z\sim0.2~Z_{\odot}$). The total number of mosaic fields is $\sim$8000, which results in a field coverage of 0.26$~$degree$^{2}$ ($\sim$2.9 $\times$10$^{5}$$~$pc$^2$), corresponding to $\sim$10$\%$ area of the galaxy. The sensitive $\sim$2$~$pc resolution observations reveal the detailed structure of the molecular clouds previously detected in the single-dish NANTEN survey. We have detected a number of compact CO clouds within lower H$_2$ column density ($\sim$10$^{20}$$~$cm$^{-2}$) regions whose angular scale is similar to the ACA beam size. Most of the clouds in this survey also show peak brightness temperature as low as $<$1$~$K, which for optically thick CO emission implies an emission size much smaller than the beam size, leading to beam dilution. The comparison between an available estimation of the total molecular material traced by thermal dust emission and the present CO survey demonstrates that more than $\sim$90$\%$ H$_2$ gas cannot be traced by the low-$J$ CO emission. Our processed data cubes and 2-D images are publicly available.

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Massive star formation in the Carina nebula complex and Gum 31 -- II. a cloud-cloud collision in Gum 31

We present the results of analyses of the 12CO (J=1-0), 13CO (J=1-0), and 12CO (J=2-1) emission data toward Gum 31. Three molecular clouds separated in velocity were detected at -25, -20, and -10 km/s . The velocity structure of the molecular clouds in Gum 31 cannot be interpreted as expanding motion. Two of them, the -25 km/s cloud and the -20 km/s cloud, are likely associated with Gum 31, because their 12CO (J=2-1)/12CO (J=1-0) intensity ratios are high. We found that these two clouds show the observational signatures of cloud-cloud collisions (CCCs): a complementary spatial distribution and a V-shaped structure (bridge features) in the position-velocity diagram. In addition, their morphology and velocity structures are very similar to the numerical simulations conducted by the previous studies. We propose a scenario that the -25 km/s cloud and the -20 km/s cloud were collided and triggered the formation of the massive star system HD 92206 in Gum 31. This scenario can explain the offset of the stars from the center and the morphology of Gum 31 simultaneously. The timescale of the collision was estimated to be ~1 Myr by using the ratio between the path length of the collision and the assumed velocity separation. This is consistent with that of the CCCs in Carina Nebula Complex in our previous study.

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The interstellar medium in young supernova remnants: key to the production of cosmic X-rays and $γ$-rays

We review recent progress in elucidating the relationship between high-energy radiation and the interstellar medium (ISM) in young supernova remnants (SNRs) with ages of $\sim$2000 yr, focusing in particular on RX J1713.7$-$3946 and RCW 86. Both SNRs emit strong nonthermal X-rays and TeV $γ$-rays, and they contain clumpy distributions of interstellar gas that includes both atomic and molecular hydrogen. We find that shock-cloud interactions provide a viable explanation for the spatial correlation between the X-rays and ISM. In these interactions, the supernova shocks hit the typically pc-scale dense cores, generating a highly turbulent velocity field that amplifies the magnetic field up to 0.1-1 mG. This amplification leads to enhanced nonthermal synchrotron emission around the clumps, whereas the cosmic-ray electrons do not penetrate the clumps. Accordingly, the nonthermal X-rays exhibit a spatial distribution similar to that of the ISM on the pc scale, while they are anticorrelated at sub-pc scales. These results predict that hadronic $γ$-rays can be emitted from the dense cores, resulting in a spatial correspondence between the $γ$-rays and the ISM. The current pc-scale resolution of $γ$-ray observations is too low to resolve this correspondence. Future $γ$-ray observations with the Cherenkov Telescope Array will be able to resolve the sub-pc-scale $γ$-ray distribution and provide clues to the origin of these cosmic $γ$-rays.

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Pursuing the origin of the gamma rays in RX J1713.7$-$3946 quantifying the hadronic and leptonic components

We analyzed the TeV gamma-ray image of a supernova remnant RX J1713.7$-$3946 (RX J1713) through a comparison with the interstellar medium (ISM) and the non-thermal X-rays. The gamma-ray datasets at two energy bands of $>$2 TeV and $>$250-300 GeV were obtained with H.E.S.S. (H.E.S.S. Collaboration 2018; Aharonian et al. 2007) and utilized in the analysis. We employed a new methodology which assumes that the gamma-ray counts are expressed by a linear combination of two terms; one is proportional to the ISM column density and the other proportional to the X-ray count. We then assume these represent the hadronic and leptonic components, respectively. By fitting the expression to the data pixels, we find that the gamma-ray counts are well represented by a flat plane in a 3D space of the gamma-ray counts, the ISM column density and the X-ray counts. The results using the latest H.E.S.S. data at 4.8 arcmin resolution show that the hadronic and leptonic components occupy $(67\pm8)$% and $(33\pm8)$% of the total gamma rays, respectively, where the two components have been quantified for the first time. The hadronic component is greater than the leptonic component, which reflects the massive ISM of $\sim$10$^4$ $M_{\odot}$ associated with the SNR, lending support for the acceleration of the cosmic-ray protons. There is a marginal hint that the gamma rays are suppressed at high gamma-ray counts which may be ascribed to the second order effects including the shock-cloud interaction and the penetration-depth effect.

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Three-dimensional dust geometry of the LMC HI ridge region as revealed by the IRSF/SIRIUS survey

We present a new method to evaluate the dust extinction (AV) along the line of sight using the InfraRed Survey Facility (IRSF) near-infrared (NIR) data of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) HI ridge region. In our method, we estimate an AV value for each star from the NIR color excess and sort them from bluer to redder in each line of sight. Using the percentile values of the sorted AV, we newly construct the three-dimensional AV map. We compare the resultant AV map with the total hydrogen column density N(H) traced by velocity-resolved HI and CO observations. In the LMC HI ridge region, Fukui et al. (2017, PASJ, 69, L5) find two velocity components and an intermediate velocity one bridging them. Comparing our three-dimensional AV maps with N(H) maps at the different velocities, we find that the dust geometry is consistent with the scenario of the on-going gas collision between the two velocities as suggested in the previous study. In addition, we find difference by a factor of 2 in AV/N(H) between the two velocity components, which suggests that inflow gas from the Small Magellanic Clouds (SMC) is mixed in this region. As a whole, our results support the triggered star formation in 30 Doradus due to the large-scale gas collision caused by tidal interaction between the LMC and the SMC.

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ALMA Observations of Giant Molecular Clouds in M33 III: Spatially Resolved Features of the Star-Formation Inactive Million-solar-mass Cloud

We present $^{12}$CO ($J$ = 2-1), $^{13}$CO ($J$ = 2-1), and C$^{18}$O ($J$ = 2-1) observations toward GMC-8, one of the most massive giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in M33 using ALMA with an angular resolution of 0".44 $\times$ 0".27 ($\sim$2 pc $\times$ 1pc). The earlier studies revealed that its high-mass star formation is inactive in spite of a sufficient molecular reservoir with the total mass of $\sim$10$^{6}$ $M_{\odot}$. The high-angular resolution data enable us to resolve this peculiar source down to a molecular clump scale. One of the GMC's remarkable features is that a round-shaped gas structure (the "Main cloud" ) extends over $\sim$50 pc scale, which is quite different from the other two active star-forming GMCs dominated by remarkable filaments/shells obtained by our series of studies in M33. The fraction of the relatively dense gas traced by the $^{13}$CO data with respect to the total molecular mass is only $\sim$2 %, suggesting that their spatial structure and the density are not well developed to reach an active star formation. The CO velocity analysis shows that the GMC is composed of a single component as a whole, but we found some local velocity fluctuations in the Main cloud and extra blueshifted components at the outer regions. Comparing the CO with previously published large-scale H I data, we suggest that an external atomic gas flow supplied a sufficient amount of material to grow the GMC up to $\sim$10$^6$ $M_{\odot}$.

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Giant Molecular Cloud Formation at the Interface of Colliding Supershells in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We investigate the Hi envelope of the young, massive GMCs in the star-forming regions N48 and N49, which are located within the high column density Hi ridge between two kpc-scale supergiant shells, LMC 4 and LMC 5. New long-baseline Hi 21 cm line observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) were combined with archival shorter baseline data and single dish data from the Parkes telescope, for a final synthesized beam size of 24.75" by 20.48", which corresponds to a spatial resolution of ~ 6 pc in the LMC. It is newly revealed that the Hi gas is highly filamentary, and that the molecular clumps are distributed along filamentary Hi features. In total 39 filamentary features are identified and their typical width is ~ 21 (8-49) [pc]. We propose a scenario in which the GMCs were formed via gravitational instabilities in atomic gas which was initially accumulated by the two shells and then further compressed by their collision. This suggests that GMC formation involves the filamentary nature of the atomic medium.

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The formation of the young massive cluster B1 in the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/NGC 4039) triggered by cloud-cloud collision

The Antennae Galaxies is one of the starbursts in major mergers. Tsuge et al. (2020) showed that the five giant molecular complexes in the Antennae Galaxies have signatures of cloud-cloud collisions based on the ALMA archival data at 60 pc resolution. In the present work we analyzed the new CO data toward the super star cluster (SSC) B1 at 14 pc resolution obtained with ALMA, and confirmed that two clouds show complementary distribution with a displacement of $\sim$70 pc as well as the connecting bridge features between them. The complementary distribution shows a good correspondence with the theoretical collision model (Takahira et al. 2014), and indicates that SSC B1 having $\sim$10$^{6}$ $M$$_{\odot}$ was formed by the trigger of a cloud-cloud collision with a time scale of $\sim$1Myr, which is consistent with the cluster age. It is likely that SSC B1 was formed from molecular gas of $\sim$10$^{7}$ $M$$_{\odot}$ with a star formation efficiency of $\sim$10 % in 1 Myr. We identified a few places where additional clusters are forming. Detailed gas motion indicates stellar feedback in accelerating gas is not effective, while ionization plays a role in evacuating the gas around the clusters at a $\sim$30-pc radius. The results have revealed the details of the parent gas where a cluster having mass similar to a globular is being formed.

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An ALMA view of the Galactic super star cluster RCW38 at 270-AU resolution

We report millimeter/submillimeter continuum and molecular line observations of the Galactic super star cluster RCW 38, obtained from the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array with a minimum angular resolution of $0''.17\times0''.15$ ($\simeq289\,{\rm AU}\times255\,{\rm AU}$). The C$^{18}$O image reveal many massive condensations embedded within filamentary structures extending along the northwest-southeast direction in the center of cluster. The condensations have sizes of 0.01-0.02 pc, H$_2$ column densities of $10^{23}$-$10^{24}$ cm$^{-2}$, and H$_2$ masses of 10-130 $M_\odot$. In addition, the 233-GHz continuum image reveals two dense, small millimeter-sources with radii of 460 and 200 AU (Source A and Source B). Source A is embedded within the most massive C$^{18}$O condensation, whereas no counterpart is seen for Source B. The masses of Source A and Source B are estimated as 13 and 3 $M_\odot$ at the optically-thin limit, respectively. The C$^{18}$O emission shows a velocity gradient of 2 km s$^{-1}$ at the central 2000 AU of Source A, which could be interpreted as a Keplerian rotation with a central mass of a few $M_\odot$ or infall motion of gas. Further, the ALMA $^{12}$CO data reveal that Source A and Source B are associated with molecular outflows exhibiting maximum velocities of $\sim$30-70 km s$^{-1}$. The outflows have short dynamical timescales of $<$1000 yr and high mass outflow rates of $\sim10^{-4}$-$10^{-3}$ $M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. These observational signatures suggest an early evolutionary phase of the massive star formation in Source A and Source B.

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Development of the new multi-beam receiver and telescope control system for NASCO

We report the current status of the NASCO (NAnten2 Super CO survey as legacy) project which aims to provide all-sky CO data cube of southern hemisphere using the NANTEN2 4-m submillimeter telescope installed at the Atacama Desert through developing a new multi-beam receiver and a new telescope control system. The receiver consists of 5 beams. The four beams, located at the four corners of a square with the beam separation of 720$''$, are installed with a 100 GHz band SIS receiver having 2-polarization sideband-separation filter. The other beam, located at the optical axis, is installed with a 200 GHz band SIS receiver having 2-polarization sideband-separation filter. The cooled component is modularized for each beam, and cooled mirrors are used. The IF bandwidths are 8 and 4 GHz for 100 and 200 GHz bands, respectively. Using XFFTS spectrometers with a bandwidth of 2 GHz, the lines of $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O of $J$=1$-$0 or $J$=2$-$1 can be observed simultaneously for each beam. The control system is reconstructed on the ROS architecture, which is an open source framework for robot control, to enable a flexible observation mode and to handle a large amount of data. The framework is commonly used and maintained in a robotic field, and thereby reliability, flexibility, expandability, and efficiency in development are improved as compared with the system previously used. The receiver and control system are installed on the NANTEN2 telescope in December 2019, and its commissioning and science verification are on-going. We are planning to start science operation in early 2021.

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Observations of the [CI] ($^3P_1$-$^3P_0$) emission toward the massive star-forming region RCW38: further evidence for highly-clumped density distribution of the molecular gas

We present observations of the $^3P_1$-$^3P_0$ fine-structure line of atomic carbon using the ASTE 10 m sub-mm telescope towards RCW38, the youngest super star cluster in the Milky Way. The detected [CI] emission is compared with the CO $J$ = 1-0 image cube presented in Fukui et al. (2016) which has an angular resolution of 40$^{\prime \prime}$ ($\sim$ 0.33 pc). The overall distribution of the [CI] emission in this cluster is similar to that of the $^{13}$CO emission. The optical depth of the [CI] emission was found to be $τ$ = 0.1-0.6, suggesting mostly optically thin emission. An empirical conversion factor from the [CI] integrated intensity to the H$_2$ column density was estimated as $X_{\rm [CI]}$ = 6.3 $\times$ 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-2}$ K$^{-1}$ km$^{-1}$ s (for visual extinction: $A_V$ $\le$ 10 mag) and 1.4 $\times$ 10$^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$ K$^{-1}$ km$^{-1}$ s (for $A_V$ of 10-100 mag). The column density ratio of the [CI] to CO ($N_{\rm [CI]}/N_{\rm CO}$) was derived as $\sim$ 0.1 for $A_V$ of 10-100 mag, which is consistent with that of the Orion cloud presented in Ikeda et al. (2002). However, our results cover an $A_V$ regime of up to 100 mag, which is wider than the coverage found in Orion, which reach up to $\sim$ 60 mag. Such a high [CI]/CO ratio in a high $A_V$ region is difficult to be explained by the plane-parallel photodissociation region (PDR) model, which predicts that this ratio is close to 0 due to the heavy shielding of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Our results suggest that the molecular gas in this cluster is highly clumpy, allowing deep penetration of UV radiation even at averaged $A_V$ values of 100 mag. Recent theoretical works have presented models consistent with such clumped gas distribution with a sub-pc clump size (e.g., Tachihara et al. 2018).

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Formation of Massive Star Clusters by Fast HI Gas Collision

Young massive clusters (YMCs) are dense aggregates of young stars, which are essential to galaxy evolution, owing to their ultraviolet radiation, stellar winds, and supernovae. The typical mass and radius of YMCs are M~10^4 M_sun and R~1 pc, respectively, indicating that many stars are located in a small region. The formation of YMC precursor clouds may be difficult because a very compact massive cloud should be formed before stellar feedback blows off the cloud. Recent observational studies suggest that YMCs can be formed as a consequence of the fast HI gas collision with a velocity of ~100 km s^-1, which is the typical velocity of the galaxy-galaxy interaction. In this study, we examine whether the fast HI gas collision triggers YMC formation using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations, which include the effects of self-gravity, radiative cooling/heating, and chemistry. We demonstrate that massive gravitationally bound gas clumps with M >10^4 M_sun and L~4 pc are formed in the shock compressed region induced by the fast HI gas collision, which massive gas clumps can evolve into YMCs. Our results show that the YMC precursors are formed by the global gravitational collapse of molecular clouds, and YMCs can be formed even in low-metal environments, such as the Magellanic Clouds. Additionally, the very massive YMC precursor cloud, with M >10^5 M_sun, can be created when we consider the fast collision of HI clouds, which may explain the origin of the very massive stellar cluster R136 system in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

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Active star formation across the whole Large Magellanic Cloud triggered by tidally-driven colliding HI flows

The galactic tidal interaction is a possible mechanism to trigger the active star formation in galaxies. Recent analyses using the Hi data in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) proposed that the tidally driven colliding HI flows, induced by the galactic interaction with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), triggered high-mass star formation in the southeastern HI Ridge, including R136 and $\sim$400 O/WR stars, and the galactic center region hosting the N44 region. This study performed a comprehensive HI data analysis across the LMC and found that two Hi velocity components defined in the early studies (L- and D- components) are quasi-ubiquitous with signatures of interaction dynamically toward the other prominent HII regions, such as N11 and N79. We characterize the intimidate velocity range (I-component) between the two components as the decelerated gas by momentum conservation in the collisional interaction. The spatial distributions of the I-component and those of the O/WR stars have good agreements with each other whose fraction is more than $\sim$70% at a scale of $\sim$15 pc, which is significantly smaller than the typical GMC size. Based on the results of our new simulations of the LMC-SMC interaction, we propose that the interaction about 0.2 Gyr ago induced efficient infall of gas from the SMC to the LMC and consequently ended up with recent formation of high-mass stars due to collisions of HI gas in the LMC. The new numerical simulations of the gas dynamics successfully reproduce the current distribution of the L-component. This lends theoretical support for the present picture.

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Cloud-cloud collisions and triggered star formation

Star formation is a fundamental process for galactic evolution. One issue over the last several decades has been determining whether star formation is induced by external triggers or is self-regulated in a closed system. The role of an external trigger, which can effectively collect mass in a small volume, has attracted particular attention in connection with the formation of massive stellar clusters, which in the extreme may lead to starbursts. Recent observations have revealed massive cluster formation triggered by cloud-cloud collisions in nearby interacting galaxies, including the Magellanic system and the Antennae Galaxies as well as almost all well-known high-mass star-forming regions such as RCW 120, M20, M42, NGC 6334, etc., in the Milky Way. Theoretical efforts are laying the foundation for the mass compression that causes massive cluster/star formation. Here, we review the recent progress on cloud-cloud collisions and triggered star-cluster formation and discuss the future prospects for this area of research.

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