Star formation associated with the infrared dust bubble N68

We investigated the environment of the infrared dust bubble N68 and searched for evidence of triggered star formation in its surroundings. We performed a multiwavelength study of the nebula with data taken from several large-scale surveys： GLIMPSE, MIPSGAL, IRAS, NVSS, GRS and JCMT. We analyzed the spectral pro- file and the distribution of the molecular gas （13CO J -- 1 - 0 and J -- 3 - 2）, and the dust in the environment of N68. The position-velocity diagram clearly shows that N68 may be expanding outward. We used two three-color images of the mid-infrared emis- sion to explore the physical environment, and one color-color diagram to investigate the distribution of young stellar objects （YSOs）. We found that the 24 p^m emission is surrounded by the 8.0 ~m emission. Morphologically, the 1.4 GHz continuum strongly correlates with the 24 gm emission, and the 13CO J -- 1 - 0 and J -- 3 - 2 emissions correlate well with the 8.0 p^m emission. We investigated two compact cores located in the shell of N68. The spectral intensity ratios of 13CO J -- 3 - 2 to J = 1 - 0 range from 5 to 0.3. In addition, YSOs, masers, IRAS and UC HII regions are distributed in the shell of the bubble. The active region may be triggered by the expansion of the bubble N68.

Observational evidence for the evolution of nuclear metallicity and star formation rate with the merger stage

We investigate the evolution of nuclear gas-phase oxygen abundance and star formation rate（SFR） of local far-infrared selected star-forming galaxies along the merger sequence, as traced by their optical morphologies. The sample was drawn from a cross-correlation analysis of the IRAS Point Source Catalog Redshift Survey and 1 Jy ultraluminous infrared galaxy sample with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 database. The investigation is done by comparing our sample to a control sample matched in the normalized redshift distribution in two diagnostics, which are the nuclear gas-phase metallicity vs.stellar mass and the nuclear SFR vs. stellar mass diagrams. Galaxies with different morphological types show different mass-metallicity relations（MZRs）. Compared to the MZR defined by the control sample,isolated spirals have comparable metallicities with the control sample at a given stellar mass. Spirals in pairs and interacting galaxies with projected separations of rp 〉 20 kpc show a mild metallicity dilution of0.02–0.03 dex. Interacting galaxies with rp 〈 20 kpc, pre-mergers and advanced mergers are underabundant by～0.06,～0.05 and～0.04 dex, respectively. This shows an evolutionary trend that the metallicity is increasingly depressed as the merging proceeds and it is diluted most dramatically when two galaxies are closely interacting. Afterwards, the interstellar medium（ISM） is enriched when the galaxies coalesce.This is the first time that such ISM enrichment at the final coalescence stage has been observed, which demonstrates the importance of supernova explosions in affecting the nuclear metallicity. Moreover, the central SFR enhancement relative to the control sample evolves simultaneously with the nuclear gas-phase oxygen abundance. Our results support the predictions from numerical simulations.

Sequential clustering of star formations in IC 1396

We present a comprehensive study of the H II region IC 1396 and its star forming activity, in which multi-wavelength data ranging from the optical to the near- and far-infrared were employed. The surface density distribution of all the 2MASS sources with a certain detection toward IC 1396 indicates the existence of a compact cluster spatially consistent with the position of the exciting source of the H II region, HD 206267. The spatial distribution of the sources with excessive infrared emission, selected based on archived 2MASS data, reveals the existence of four sub-clusters in this region. One is associated with the open cluster Trumpler 37. The other three are found to be spatially coincident with the bright rims of the H II region. All the sources with excessive emission in the near infrared are cross-identified with AKARI IRC data. An analysis of the spectral energy distributions （SEDs） of the resultant sample leads to the identification of eight CLASS I, 15 CLASS II and 15 CLASS IH sources in IC 1396. Optical identification of the sample sources with R magnitudes brighter than 17 mag corroborates the results from the SED analysis. Based on the spatial distribution of the infrared young stellar objects at different evolutionary stages, the surrounding sub-clusters located in the bright rims are believed to be younger than the central one. This is consistent with a scenario of sequential star formation in this region. Imaging data of a dark patch in IC 1396 by Herschel SPIRE, on the other hand, indicate the presence of two far-infrared cores in LDN 1111, which are likely to be a new generation of protostellar objects in formation. So we infer that the star formation process in this H II region was not continuous but rather episodic.