NGC3576: Triggered formation of a Giant HII Region?

NGC3576 is a massive star formation region and giant HII region that may be the youngest member of a long chain of self-propagating or triggered star formation in the Carina arm. We propose multifrequency centimeter imaging as the final piece of our multiwavelength study of star formation in this area. We wish to understand whether massive clusters are formed slowly in long-lived giant molecular clouds (GMCs), or rapidly, with GMCs themselves forming from colliding flows triggered by previous star formation. We have already obtained Spitzer and Chandra photometry, to identify and analyze the young protestellar population. Our infrared dust modeling constrains the evolutionary state and mass of each source, and X-ray activity provides complementary analysis of IR-ambiguous sources and or sources lost in the IR-bright HII region. The relationship between multiple generations of stars in the giant HII region and bubble to the north is muddied by the presence of Halpha filaments, possible indicating supernova, in the bubble. ATCA observations are required to understand the nature and physics of th filaments and bubble, and to identify and study massive YSOs via their ultracompact HII regions.