Constraining Star Formation Timescales Using the Spatial Correlation of Young Star Clusters and Giant Molecular Clouds using the PHANGS-ALMA and PHANGS-HST datasets
In the hierarchical view of star formation, giant molecular gas clouds (GMCs) undergo fragmentation to form small-scale structures made up of stars and star clusters which constitute the larger structures within galaxies. Here we study the connection between young star clusters and cold gas across a range of galactic environments by combining the high resolution (1") PHANGS-ALMA catalog of GMCs with the star cluster catalogs from PHANGS-HST. The star clusters are spatially matched with the GMCs and we statistically derive the timescales of star formation within GMCs. We apply this technique across a sample of 11 nearby star-forming galaxies with a range of galactic environments (i.e., centers, bars, spiral arms, etc.) thus providing insight on the connection between star formation at small-scales and large-scale galactic structure. Additionally, we measure the autocorrelation of the star clusters and GMCs as well as the cross-correlation to quantify the fractal nature of hierarchical star formation.