Gas surface density, star formation rate surface density, and the maximum mass of young star clusters in a disk galaxy. II. the grand-design galaxy M51

Abstract

We analyze the relationship between maximum cluster mass and surface densities of total gas (Σgas), molecular gas (), neutral gas (), and star formation rate (ΣSFR) in the grand-design galaxy M51, using published gas data and a catalog of masses, ages, and reddenings of more than 1800 star clusters in its disk, of which 223 are above the cluster mass distribution function completeness limit. By comparing the two-dimensional distribution of cluster masses and gas surface densities, we find for clusters older than 25 Myr that , whereM 3rd is the median of the five most massive clusters. There is no correlation withΣgas,ΣH2, orΣSFR. For clusters younger than 10 Myr, and ; there is no correlation with either orΣSFR. The results could hardly be more different from those found for clusters younger than 25 Myr in M33. For the flocculent galaxy M33, there is no correlation between maximum cluster mass and neutral gas, but we have determined and . For the older sample in M51, the lack of tight correlations is probably due to the combination of strong azimuthal variations in the surface densities of gas and star formation rate, and the cluster ages. These two facts mean that neither the azimuthal average of the surface densities at a given radius nor the surface densities at the present-day location of a stellar cluster represent the true surface densities at the place and time of cluster formation. In the case of the younger sample, even if the clusters have not yet traveled too far from their birth sites, the poor resolution of the radio data compared to the physical sizes of the clusters results in measuredΣ that are likely quite diluted compared to the actual densities relevant for the formation of the clusters. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..