On the impact of radiation pressure on the dynamics and inner structure of dusty wind-driven shells
Massive young stellar clusters are strong sources of radiation and mechanical energy. Their powerful winds and radiation pressure sweep up interstellar gas into thin expanding shells that trap the ionizing radiation produced by the central clusters affecting the dynamics and the distribution of their ionized gas. Here we continue our comparison of the star cluster winds and radiation pressure effects on the dynamics of shells around young massive clusters. We calculate the impact that radiation pressure has on the distribution of matter and thermal pressure within such shells, as well as on the density-weighted ionization parameter U{sub w} , and put our results on the diagnostic diagram, which allows one to discriminate between the wind-dominated and radiation-dominated regimes. We found that model-predicted values of the ionization parameter agree well with typical values found in local starburst galaxies. Radiation pressure may affect the inner structure and the dynamics of wind-driven shells, but only during the earliest stages of evolution (before ∼3 Myr) or if a major fraction of the star cluster mechanical luminosity is dissipated or radiated away within the star cluster volume and thus the star cluster mechanical energy output is significantly smaller than star cluster synthetic models predict. However, even in these cases radiation dominates over the wind dynamical pressure only if the exciting cluster is embedded into a high-density ambient medium.