No preferential spatial distribution for massive stars expected from their formation

We analyse N-body and Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) simulations of young star-forming regions to search for differences in the spatial distributions of massive stars compared to lower-mass stars. The competitive accretion theory of massive star formation posits that the most massive stars should sit in deeper potential wells than lower-mass stars. This may be observable in the relative surface density or spatial concentration of the most massive stars compared to other, lower-mass stars. Massive stars in cool–collapse N-body models do end up in significantly deeper potentials, and are mass segregated. However, in models of warm (expanding) star-forming regions, whilst the massive stars do come to be in deeper potentials than average stars, they are not mass segregated. In the purely hydrodynamical SPH simulations, the massive stars do come to reside in deeper potentials, which is due to their runaway growth. However, when photoionisation and stellar winds are implemented in the simulations, these feedback mechanisms regulate the mass of the stars and disrupt the inflow of gas into the clouds’ potential wells. This generally makes the potential wells shallower than in the control runs, and prevents the massive stars from occupying deeper potentials. This in turn results in the most massive stars having a very similar spatial concentration and surface density distribution to lower-mass stars. Whilst massive stars do form via competitive accretion in our simulations, this rarely translates to a different spatial distribution and so any lack of primordial mass segregation in an observed star-forming region does not preclude competitive accretion as a viable formation mechanism for massive stars.