SF-05-0017

The Power of Outflows in Low-metallicity Star Formation

Kei E. I. Tanaka, Yichen Zhang, Takashi Shimonishi, Kengo Tomida, Jonathan C. Tan, Hideko Nomura, John Bally

Massive stars play essential roles across cosmic history, and the question of whether massive star formation processes are universal or diverse in different metallicity environments remains a fundamental problem in astronomy. Some theoretical studies have suggested that metallicity may impact the formation of massive stars. For example, our models showed protostellar disks being extremely unstable and photoionization feedback becoming significant in metal-poor environments of <0.01 Zsun. However, observational studies of individual star formation in sub-pc scales have primarily been limited to the solar-metallicity Galactic disk. In order to explore the dynamics and chemistry of low-metallicity star formation, we conducted a new ALMA survey, the "MAgellanic Outflow and chemistry Survey (MAGOS)," targeting 40 massive protostars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) with metallicities of ~0.5 and 0.2 Zsun, respectively. As a first science case, we investigate the protostellar outflow properties using CO (3-2) emission. Our results show that the LMC outflows have similar mass, momentum, and energy to those in the Galaxy, but CO emissions from the SMC outflows appear to be weaker. This suggests that either CO is too dark to trace outflows in the 0.2-Zsun environment, or that the SMC outflows may indeed be weaker. Our theoretical and observational studies provide new insights into the role of metallicity in massive star formation, which has important implications for our understanding of the evolution of galaxies and the universe.