Pre-Supernova Stellar Feedback: from the Milky Way to Reionization

Galaxy formation and evolution are driven by stars and star formation. Star formation is fundamental for shaping the universe as we see it today as part of the cosmic ecosystems encompassing galaxies, yet half of the physics that determines how much gas forms into stars – the stellar feedback (injection of energy and momentum to the surrounding material) half of the tug-of-war between gravity and stellar feedback – have only recently become a focus for observational astronomers. Theoretical explorations of stellar feedback have been extensive for the past four decades and our current understanding of star-forming galaxies comes primarily through extensive modeling and simulations with sub-grid physics prescriptions based on a handful of observations. In order to secure the basis for these sub-grid physics models and expand our understanding of star-formation and the effects of massive stars during all epochs of the universe, more observations of these processes are needed. Observations of star forming regions provide the foundation to anchor simulations and observations of analogues to high-redshift galaxies help determine the sources that reionized the universe and the role stars played in during the Epoch of Reionization. With multiwavelength observations of H ii regions in the Milky Way, I have probed the effects of stellar feedback in dynamics of H ii regions, providing the necessary basis for defining the sub-grid physics in simulations. With multiwavelength observations of nearby galaxies with properties similar to galaxies in the EoR (low mass: < 107 M⊙; low metallicity: < 0.15 Z⊙; and high star-formation rates: > 10−1.2 M⊙/yr), I have determined the properties of sources that produce the photoionization feedback we observe and which sources ionized the universe in the Reionization Era. With X-ray observations of a massive colliding wind binary I have explored the effects of stellar wind feedback on small spatial scales and found that wind prescriptions assume symmetric mass-loss, however observations indicate mass-loss is asymmetric from massive stars. Overall, these results show the variety of ways astronomers can observe stellar feedback and incorporate these physics into our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.