Predictions of Embedded Super Star Cluster Geometries using Radiative Transfer Codes

The era of high-resolution, long-wavelength astronomy is fast approaching with such telescopes as the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The unprecedented sensitivity and resolution at infrared and millimeter wavelengths of these telescopes will be used to study many phenomena that are too difficult to study with currently available facilities. Such is the case with embedded super star clusters (SSCs). SSCs are usually observed in association with overlap regions of interacting galaxies, in nuclear starbursts, and in blue compact dwarf galaxies, but they offer a tantalizing puzzle piece in star formation lore as the most likely modern counterpart to globular cluster progenitors. In an effort to model the physical characteristics of the earliest phases of SSC formation, I have created an atlas of infrared spectral energy distributions for comparison to data (Whelan et al. 2011). Together with molecular line radiative transfer models, these first predictions can be applied to data from ALMA and JWST to constrain such fundamental properties as the surrounding molecular cloud's mass, the size of the central HII region, and the effects of turbulence on the data.

suggested reading: Whelan+ (2011)