Abstract
We examine the effects of ionization, radiation pressure and main sequence winds from massive stars on self-gravitating, clumpy molecular clouds, thereby modeling the formation and pre-supernova feedback of massive star clusters. We find the process of “turbulent mass loading” is effective in confining HII regions. Extrapolating typical Galactic high-mass star forming regions to greater initial gas cloud masses and assuming steady star formation rates, we determine the timescales for cloud disruption. We find that a dense (n c ≃ 2 x 105 cm−3) cloud with initial mass M c ≃ 4 x 105 M⊙ is able to form ~ 2 x 105 M⊙ of stars ( 50% efficiency) before feedback disperses the gas after ~ 3 Myr. This mass and age are typical of young, optically visible super star clusters (SSCs). The high efficiency permits the creation of a bound stellar system.
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