Where Do Stars Explode in the ISM?—The Distribution of Dense Gas around Evolved Massive Stars in M33

Abstract The effect of supernovae (SNe) on star formation in the interstellar medium (ISM) depends sensitively on where SNe explode with respect to ISM clouds. Observationally, SN ISM environments characterized by spatially resolved gas maps can empirically guide the placement of SNe in subgrid models, but unfortunately such measurements remain scarce, as SNe are rare and often distant. Here we demonstrate a new approach—mapping the ISM around evolved massive stars that are soon to explode. These provide a substantially larger sample of “explosion sites” (than just historical SNe) in nearby galaxies that have high-resolution atomic and molecular ISM maps from the Jansky Very Large Array and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We demonstrate this technique in the well-resolved Local Group spiral M33 by analyzing the 50 pc scale projected ISM densities around red supergiants (RSGs; 8–30 M ⊙ stars) Wolf–Rayet stars (W-Rs; >30 M ⊙ stars), and supernova remnants. We find a mass-dependent correlation between stars and gas clouds, with at least 45% of W-Rs and up to 77% of RSGs having no detectable H 2 at their pixel locations. In the sample with H 2 detections, we find that more-massive younger progenitors are coincident with denser gas. We show that the density distributions for stars >15 M ⊙ are statistically distinct from random alignment of stars and gas in M33. Our work provides the first observationally derived estimate of the fraction of the SN-producing stellar population correlated with ISM density peaks. We demonstrate how this can be compared with galaxy simulations, and advocate similar comparisons to the community for constraining subgrid models.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Published
2026-03-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae3f33
Primary Topic
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
Type
article
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article

Where Do Stars Explode in the ISM?—The Distribution of Dense Gas around Evolved Massive Stars in M33

Kathryn F. Neugent, Nickolas M. Pingel, Amanda A. Kepley, Adam Smercina et al.
The Astrophysical Journal
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
article

Where Do Stars Explode in the ISM?—The Distribution of Dense Gas around Evolved Massive Stars in M33

Kathryn F. Neugent, Nickolas M. Pingel, Amanda A. Kepley, Adam Smercina, Natalia Lahén, Elizabeth Tarantino, Julianne J. Dalcanton, Ness Mayker Chen, Jordan Wagner, Chang-Goo Kim, Julia Roman-Duval, Juergen Ott, Sumit K. Sarbadhicary, Thomas G. Williams, Remy Indebetouw, Fabian Walter, Jeremy Darling, Snežana Stanimirović, Jennifer Donovan Meyer, Claire E. Murray, Jay Strader, Laura Chomiuk, Laura Jaqueline López, Evan D. Skillman, Eric W. Koch, Tony Wong, Eric J. Murphy, Vicente Villanueva, Adam K. Leroy, Erik Rosolowsky
article en

Abstract

Abstract The effect of supernovae (SNe) on star formation in the interstellar medium (ISM) depends sensitively on where SNe explode with respect to ISM clouds. Observationally, SN ISM environments characterized by spatially resolved gas maps can empirically guide the placement of SNe in subgrid models, but unfortunately such measurements remain scarce, as SNe are rare and often distant. Here we demonstrate a new approach—mapping the ISM around evolved massive stars that are soon to explode. These provide a substantially larger sample of “explosion sites” (than just historical SNe) in nearby galaxies that have high-resolution atomic and molecular ISM maps from the Jansky Very Large Array and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We demonstrate this technique in the well-resolved Local Group spiral M33 by analyzing the 50 pc scale projected ISM densities around red supergiants (RSGs; 8–30 M ⊙ stars) Wolf–Rayet stars (W-Rs; >30 M ⊙ stars), and supernova remnants. We find a mass-dependent correlation between stars and gas clouds, with at least 45% of W-Rs and up to 77% of RSGs having no detectable H 2 at their pixel locations. In the sample with H 2 detections, we find that more-massive younger progenitors are coincident with denser gas. We show that the density distributions for stars >15 M ⊙ are statistically distinct from random alignment of stars and gas in M33. Our work provides the first observationally derived estimate of the fraction of the SN-producing stellar population correlated with ISM density peaks. We demonstrate how this can be compared with galaxy simulations, and advocate similar comparisons to the community for constraining subgrid models.

The Astrophysical JournalVol. 1000(1)
Space Telescope Science Institute (US), University of Minnesota (US), University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), University of Alberta (CA), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US), Princeton University (US), University of Washington (US), New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (US), National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US), University of Oxford (GB), Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (DE), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (US), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian (US), Flatiron Health (United States) (US), Flatiron Institute (US), University of Virginia (US), The Ohio State University (US), University of Maryland, College Park (US), Michigan State University (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 27%
Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
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