{
  "abstract": "We combine the largest survey of star clusters in nearby galaxies to-date, PHANGS-HST, with maps of molecular gas maps from PHANGS-ALMA to constrain the efficiency of cluster formation and the typical timescales over which clusters become dis-associated from their natal molecular gas. We analyse 29,233 clusters in 36 galaxies using CO maps at 150 pc resolution. For each star cluster with stellar mass $\\geq 10^{3.5}$ M$_\\odot$, we measure the radial profiles of CO(2-1) integrated intensity and obtain local background-subtracted CO intensity, $I_{\\rm CO}^{\\rm bkgsub}$, at cluster centre. We group the clusters by age and mass to quantify the dependence of $I_{\\rm CO}^{\\rm bkgsub}$ and corresponding molecular gas mass, $M_{\\rm mol}$, on these cluster properties. To account for the cluster mass ($M_{\\rm SC}$) dependence, we also calculate the normalised mass ratio of $(M_{\\rm mol}/M_{\\rm SC})$. We find that CO intensity varies systematically with cluster age and mass. Clusters that are spatially associated with H$α$ emission exhibit the highest $I_{\\rm CO}^{\\rm bkgsub}$ of 7.4 K km s$^{-1}$, corresponding to a $M_{\\rm mol}/M_{\\rm SC}$ ratio of 82 and implying a cluster formation efficiency ($ε_{\\rm obs}$) of $\\sim 1.2\\%$. Young clusters without associated H$α$ emission show lower and age-dependent $I_{\\rm CO}^{\\rm bkgsub}$ and $M_{\\rm mol}/M_{\\rm SC}$, decreasing from 1.3 K km s$^{-1}$ and 15 for clusters with age 1-3 Myr, to a level $\\approx$ 0 for clusters older than 9--10 Myr. Clusters older than 10 Myr show no statistical excess of CO intensity. We use the clusters with H$α$ association as initial conditions to model the impact of cluster drift and demonstrate that this is unlikely to drive the observed cluster-gas spatial disassociation on short timescales of 4-6 Myr. Instead, early stellar feedback seems likely to be the main driver.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.31838",
  "author_total": 40,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Hao He"
    },
    {
      "name": "Adam K. Leroy"
    },
    {
      "name": "Erik Rosolowsky"
    },
    {
      "name": "Janice Lee"
    },
    {
      "name": "Brad Whitmore"
    },
    {
      "name": "David Thilker"
    },
    {
      "name": "Daniel A. Dale"
    },
    {
      "name": "Frank Bigiel"
    },
    {
      "name": "Annie Hughes"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jiayi Sun"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gagandeep Anand"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ashley T. Barnes"
    },
    {
      "name": "Zein Bazzi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Médéric Boquien"
    },
    {
      "name": "Rupali Chandar"
    },
    {
      "name": "Dario Colombo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sinan Deger"
    },
    {
      "name": "Simthembile Dlamini"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hamid Hassani"
    },
    {
      "name": "Stephan Hannon"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ralf S. Klessen"
    },
    {
      "name": "Simon C. O. Glover"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kathryn Grasha"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ivan Grasimov"
    },
    {
      "name": "Remy Indebetouw"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kirsten Larson"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lukas Neumann"
    },
    {
      "name": "Elias K. Oakes"
    },
    {
      "name": "Hsi-An Pan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Miguel Querejeta"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lise Ramambason"
    },
    {
      "name": "M. Jimena Rodríguez"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sumit K. Sarbadhicary"
    },
    {
      "name": "Eva Schinnerer"
    },
    {
      "name": "Qiushi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tian"
    },
    {
      "name": "Leonardo Úbeda"
    },
    {
      "name": "Antonio Usero"
    },
    {
      "name": "Thomas G. Williams"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jianwen Zhou"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9ksmm1hbpmpqg.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.31838",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "9ksmm1hbpmpqg",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31838",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.GA"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7214743900",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.31838",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-25",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9ksmm1hbpmpqg.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:25:12Z",
      "native_id": "2609.31838",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.31838"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.GA",
      "subfield": "galaxies"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Quantifying the decline in CO(2-1) intensity around PHANGS-HST star clusters: Constraints on molecular gas dispersal, stellar feedback, and cluster formation efficiency",
  "title_text": "Quantifying the decline in CO(2-1) intensity around PHANGS-HST star clusters: Constraints on molecular gas dispersal, stellar feedback, and cluster formation efficiency",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:25:12Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9ksmm1hbpmpqg",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}