Unlocking Galactic Wolf–Rayet stars with Gaia DR2 – II. Cluster and association membership

Galactic Wolf–Rayet (WR) star membership of star-forming regions can be used to constrain the formation environments of massive stars. Here, we utilize Gaia DR2 parallaxes and proper motions to reconsider WR star membership of clusters and associations in the Galactic disc, supplemented by recent near-infrared studies of young massive clusters. We find that only 18–36 per cent of 553 WR stars external to the Galactic Centre region are located in clusters, OB associations or obscured star-forming regions, such that at least 64 per cent of the known disc WR population are isolated, in contrast with only 13 per cent of O stars from the Galactic O star Catalogue. The fraction located in clusters, OB associations or star-forming regions rises to 25–41 per cent from a global census of 663 WR stars including the Galactic Centre region. We use simulations to explore the formation processes of isolated WR stars. Neither runaways, nor low-mass clusters, are numerous enough to account for the low cluster membership fraction. Rapid cluster dissolution is excluded as mass segregation ensures WR stars remain in dense, well-populated environments. Only low-density environments consistently produce WR stars that appeared to be isolated during the WR phase. We therefore conclude that a significant fraction of WR progenitors originate in low-density association-like surroundings which expand over time. We provide distance estimates to clusters and associations host to WR stars, and estimate cluster ages from isochrone fitting.