943 research outputs found
Star Formation in Transient Molecular Clouds
We present the results of a numerical simulation in which star formation
proceeds from an initially unbound molecular cloud core. The turbulent motions,
which dominate the dynamics, dissipate in shocks leaving a quiescent region
which becomes gravitationally bound and collapses to form a small multiple
system. Meanwhile, the bulk of the cloud escapes due to its initial supersonic
velocities. In this simulation, the process naturally results in a star
formation efficiency of 50%. The mass involved in star formation depends on the
gas fraction that dissipates sufficient kinetic energy in shocks. Thus, clouds
with larger turbulent motions will result in lower star formation efficiencies.
This implies that globally unbound, and therefore transient giant molecular
clouds (GMCs), can account for the low efficiency of star formation observed in
our Galaxy without recourse to magnetic fields or feedback processes.
Observations of the dynamic stability in molecular regions suggest that GMCs
may not be self-gravitating, supporting the ideas presented in this letter.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted for MNRAS as a lette
Clumpy and fractal shocks, and the generation of a velocity dispersion in molecular clouds
We present an alternative explanation for the nature of turbulence in
molecular clouds. Often associated with classical models of turbulence, we
instead interpret the observed gas dynamics as random motions, induced when
clumpy gas is subject to a shock. From simulations of shocks, we show that a
supersonic velocity dispersion occurs in the shocked gas provided the initial
distribution of gas is sufficiently non-uniform. We investigate the velocity
size-scale relation for simulations of clumpy and
fractal gas, and show that clumpy shocks can produce realistic velocity
size-scale relations with mean . For a fractal
distribution, with a fractal dimension of 2.2 similar to what is observed in
the ISM, we find . The form of the velocity size-scale
relation can be understood as due to mass loading, i.e. the post-shock velocity
of the gas is determined by the amount of mass encountered as the gas enters
the shock. We support this hypothesis with analytical calculations of the
velocity dispersion relation for different initial distributions.
A prediction of this model is that the line-of sight velocity dispersion
should depend on the angle at which the shocked gas is viewed.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The efficiency of star formation in clustered and distributed regions
We investigate the formation of both clustered and distributed populations of
young stars in a single molecular cloud. We present a numerical simulation of a
10,000 solar mass elongated, turbulent, molecular cloud and the formation of
over 2500 stars. The stars form both in stellar clusters and in a distributed
mode which is determined by the local gravitational binding of the cloud. A
density gradient along the major axis of the cloud produces bound regions that
form stellar clusters and unbound regions that form a more distributed
population. The initial mass function also depends on the local gravitational
binding of the cloud with bound regions forming full IMFs whereas in the
unbound, distributed regions the stellar masses cluster around the local Jeans
mass and lack both the high-mass and the low-mass stars. The overall efficiency
of star formation is ~ 15 % in the cloud when the calculation is terminated,
but varies from less than 1 % in the the regions of distributed star formation
to ~ 40 % in regions containing large stellar clusters. Considering that large
scale surveys are likely to catch clouds at all evolutionary stages, estimates
of the (time-averaged) star formation efficiency for the giant molecular cloud
reported here is only ~ 4 %. This would lead to the erroneous conclusion of
'slow' star formation when in fact it is occurring on a dynamical timescale.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, MNRAS in pres
The star formation efficiency and its relation to variations in the initial mass function
We investigate how the dynamical state of a turbulently supported, 1000 solar
mass, molecular cloud affects the properties of the cluster it forms, focusing
our discussion on the star formation efficiency (SFE) and the initial mass
function (IMF). A variety of initial energy states are examined in this paper,
ranging from clouds with PE = 0.1 KE to clouds with PE = 10 KE, and for both
isothermal and piece-wise polytropic equations of state (similar to that
suggested by Larson). It is found that arbitrary star formation efficiencies
are possible, with strongly unbound clouds yielding very low star formation
efficiencies. We suggest that the low star formation efficiency in the
Maddelena cloud may be a consequence of the relatively unbound state of its
internal structure. It is also found that competitive accretion results in the
observed IMF when the clouds have initial energy states of PE >= KE. We show
that under such conditions the shape of the IMF is independent of time in the
calculations. This demonstrates that the global accretion process can be
terminated at any stage in the cluster's evolution, while still yielding a
distribution of stellar masses that is consistent with the observed IMF. As the
clouds become progressively more unbound, competitive accretion is less
important and the protostellar mass function flattens. These results predict
that molecular clouds should be permeated with a distributed population of
stars that follow a flatter than Salpeter IMF.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted by MNRAS for publictaion. Now available
through the 'Online Early' schem
Ionisation-induced star formation II: External irradiation of a turbulent molecular cloud
In this paper, we examine numerically the difference between triggered and
revealed star formation. We present Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)
simulations of the impact on a turbulent 10^4 solar-mass molecular cloud of
irradiation by an external source of ionising photons. In particular, using a
control model, we investigate the triggering of star formation within the
cloud. We find that, although feedback has a dramatic effect on the morphology
of our model cloud, its impact on star formation is relatively minor. We show
that external irradiation has both positive and negative effects, accelerating
the formation of some objects, delaying the formation of others, and inducing
the formation of some that would not otherwise have formed. Overall, the
calculation in which feedback is included forms nearly twice as many objects
over a period of \sim0.5 freefall times (\sim2.4 Myr), resulting in a
star--formation efficiency approximately one third higher (\sim4% as opposed to
\sim3% at this epoch) as in the control run in which feedback is absent.
Unfortunately, there appear to be no observable characteristics which could be
used to differentiate objects whose formation was triggered from those which
were forming anyway and which were simply revealed by the effects of radiation,
although this could be an effect of poor statistics.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted by MNRA
Clump Lifetimes and the Initial Mass Function
Recent studies of dense clumps/cores in a number of regions of low-mass star
formation have shown that the mass distribution of these clumps closely
resembles the initial mass function (IMF) of field stars. One possible
interpretation of these observations is that we are witnessing the
fragmentation of the clouds into the IMF, and the observed clumps are bound
pre-stellar cores. In this paper, we highlight a potential difficulty in this
interpretation, namely that clumps of varying mass are likely to have
systematically varying lifetimes. This timescale problem can effectively
destroy the similarity bewteen the clump and stellar mass functions, such that
a stellar-like clump mass function (CMF) results in a much steeper stellar IMF.
We also discuss some ways in which this problem may be avoided.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, accepted to MNRA
The relation between accretion rates and the initial mass function in hydrodynamical simulations of star formation
We analyse a hydrodynamical simulation of star formation. Sink particles in
the simulations which represent stars show episodic growth, which is presumably
accretion from a core that can be regularly replenished in response to the
fluctuating conditions in the local environment. The accretion rates follow
, as expected from accretion in a gas-dominated
potential, but with substantial variations over-laid on this. The growth times
follow an exponential distribution which is tapered at long times due to the
finite length of the simulation. The initial collapse masses have an
approximately lognormal distribution with already an onset of a power-law at
large masses. The sink particle mass function can be reproduced with a
non-linear stochastic process, with fluctuating accretion rates , a distribution of seed masses and a distribution of growth times. All
three factors contribute equally to the form of the final sink mass function.
We find that the upper power law tail of the IMF is unrelated to Bondi-Hoyle
accretion.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, MNRAS accepte
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