The ALMA EGO-10 Survey of Massive Protoclusters: Correlation of 1.3 mm Continuum Source Clustering with Evolutionary State

Abstract: Massive stars characteristically form in clustered environments. Characterising young massive 'protoclusters' is therefore crucial to constraining the mechanism(s) of massive star formation, and of the assembly of stellar clusters. We present 1.3 mm continuum results from the ALMA EGO-10 imaging survey, targeting ten Spitzer GLIMPSE Extended Green Objects (EGOs) - massive protostars with active outflows traced by extended 4.5 $μ$m emission. Our sensitive 1'.6$\times$1'.6 mosaics reveal rich protoclusters associated with all targets. With a mean spatial resolution 2200$\times$1600 AU, we identify 570 cores - between 13 and 135 per field. We quantify protocluster structure with the $Q$-parameter, finding structural diversity with 0.5 $\lesssim Q \lesssim$ 0.9. The sample is notable for the wealth of complementary high-resolution multiwavelength data available. Correlating our cores with these observations, we find only 2%, 5% and 4% of cores host 6.7 GHz CH$<em>3$OH masers, 22 GHz H$_2$O masers and cm-$λ$ continuum sources, respectively. The massive protostars traced by 6.7 GHz masers typically reside near protocluster centres (median offset 0.045 pc), and all at $d&lt;$ 3 kpc are found in clustered locales, with $&gt;$10 cores within 10,000 AU. Using VLA cm-$λ$ continuum observations, we construct a new evolutionary indicator: the ratio of protocluster cm-$λ$ continuum luminosity to the mass of the associated ATLASGAL clump ($L</em>\text{cm}/M_\text{AGAL}$). This ratio correlates positively with $Q$, with the correlation driven primarily by the cm-$λ$ continuum emission from MYSOs. This suggests dynamic protocluster structure, evolving from subclustered to centrally condensed, consistent with the global collapse in hierarchical, clump-fed models of massive star formation.