1,546 research outputs found
Star formation and molecular hydrogen in dwarf galaxies: a non-equilibrium view
We study the connection of star formation to atomic (HI) and molecular
hydrogen (H) in isolated, low metallicity dwarf galaxies with
high-resolution ( = 4 M, = 100) SPH
simulations. The model includes self-gravity, non-equilibrium cooling,
shielding from an interstellar radiation field, the chemistry of H
formation, H-independent star formation, supernova feedback and metal
enrichment. We find that the H mass fraction is sensitive to the adopted
dust-to-gas ratio and the strength of the interstellar radiation field, while
the star formation rate is not. Star formation is regulated by stellar
feedback, keeping the gas out of thermal equilibrium for densities 1
cm. Because of the long chemical timescales, the H mass remains out
of chemical equilibrium throughout the simulation. Star formation is
well-correlated with cold ( T 100 K ) gas, but this dense and cold
gas - the reservoir for star formation - is dominated by HI, not H. In
addition, a significant fraction of H resides in a diffuse, warm phase,
which is not star-forming. The ISM is dominated by warm gas (100 K T
K) both in mass and in volume. The scale height of the
gaseous disc increases with radius while the cold gas is always confined to a
thin layer in the mid-plane. The cold gas fraction is regulated by feedback at
small radii and by the assumed radiation field at large radii. The decreasing
cold gas fractions result in a rapid increase in depletion time (up to 100
Gyrs) for total gas surface densities 10
Mpc, in agreement with observations of dwarf galaxies in the
Kennicutt-Schmidt plane.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Changes (including a pamameter
study in Appendix C) highlighte
Probing 3D Density and Velocity Fields of ISM in Centers of Galaxies with Future X-Ray Observations
Observations of bright and variable "reflected" X-ray emission from molecular
clouds located within inner hundred parsec of our Galaxy have demonstrated that
the central supermassive black hole, Sgr A*, experienced short and powerful
flares in the past few hundred years. These flares offer a truly unique
opportunity to determine 3D location of the illuminated clouds (with ~10 pc
accuracy) and to reveal their internal structure (down to 0.1 pc scales). Short
duration of the flare(s), combined with X-rays high penetration power and
insensitivity of the reflection signal to thermo- and chemo-dynamical state of
the gas, ensures that the provided diagnostics of the density and velocity
fields is unbiased and almost free of the projection and opacity effects. Sharp
and sensitive snapshots of molecular gas accessible with aid of future X-ray
observatories featuring large collecting area and high angular (arcsec-level)
and spectral (eV-level) resolution cryogenic bolometers will present invaluable
information on properties of the supersonic turbulence inside the illuminated
clouds, map their shear velocity field and allow cross-matching between X-ray
data and velocity-resolved emission of various molecular species provided by
ALMA and other ground-based facilities. This will highlight large and
small-scale dynamics of the dense gas and help uncovering specifics of the ISM
lifecycle and high-mass star formation under very extreme conditions of
galactic centers. While the former is of particular importance for the SMBH
feeding and triggering AGN feedback, the latter might be an excellent test case
for star formation taking place in high-redshift galaxies.Comment: White paper submitted to the Astro2020 Decadal Surve
Crystalline silicates as a probe of disk formation history
We present a new perspective on the crystallinity of dust in protoplanetary
disks. The dominant crystallization by thermal annealing happens in the very
early phases of disk formation and evolution. Both the disk properties and the
level of crystallinity are thereby directly linked to the properties of the
molecular cloud core from which the star+disk system was formed. We show that,
under the assumption of single star formation, rapidly rotating clouds produce
disks which, after the main infall phase (i.e. in the optically revealed class
II phase), are rather massive and have a high accretion rate but low
crystallinity. Slowly rotating clouds, on the other hand, produce less massive
disks with lower accretion rate, but high levels of crystallinity. Cloud
fragmentation and the formation of multiple stars complicates the problem and
necessitates further study. The underlying physics of the model is
insufficiently understood to provide the precise relationship between
crystallinity, disk mass and accretion rate. But the fact that with `standard'
input physics the model produces disks which, in comparison to observations,
appear to have either too high levels of crystallinity or too high disk masses,
demonstrates that the comparison of these models to observations can place
strong contraints on the disk physics. The question to ask is not why some
sources are so crystalline, but why some other sources have such a low level of
crystallinity.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ
Muscle fatty infiltration in rotator cuff tears: Descriptive analysis of 1688 cases
SummaryIntroductionFatty infiltration (FI) is an important prognosis factor in the anatomical and functional outcomes of rotator cuff repairs. The objective of this study was to analyze the natural history of muscle FI and better evaluate its onset and aggravation time frame.Material and methodsA total of 1688 medical charts of patients operated on for rotator cuff tear and whit a preoperative CT arthrogram (82%) or an MRI (18%) were reviewed. Surgery was performed between 1988 and 2005. The FI of each muscle was assessed as minimal (in Goutallier's stages 0 and 1), intermediate (in stage 2), and severe (in stages 3 and 4). Regarding supraspinatus, we retained the mean FI observed in the sagittal, coronal, and axial planes; for the infraspinatus and the subscapularis, we retained the observed mean on two views at the upper and lower levels of the glenoid in the axial plane.ResultsWe found a statistically significant correlation (p<0.0005) between FI, the type of tendon lesion, and patient age for the supraspinatus, the infraspinatus, and the subscapularis. Statistically, the FI significantly increased (p<0.0005) with time elapsed for the supraspinatus and the infraspinatus but not significantly for the subscapularis. The mean time to tendon rupture observed for intermediate FI was three years for the supraspinatus and 2.5 years for the infraspinatus and the subscapularis when their tendons ruptured. The mean time observed to severe FI was five, four, and three years for the supraspinatus, the infraspinatus, and the subscapularis, respectively.Discussion and conclusionThe more extensive the lesion, the longer the time following rupture, and the older the patient is, the more severe the FI is. The objective of surgery is to intervene before intermediate FI sets in, which means irreversible functional loss.Level of evidence: Level IV. Diagnostic Retrospective Study
The SILCC (SImulating the LifeCycle of molecular Clouds) project: I. Chemical evolution of the supernova-driven ISM
The SILCC project (SImulating the Life-Cycle of molecular Clouds) aims at a
more self-consistent understanding of the interstellar medium (ISM) on small
scales and its link to galaxy evolution. We simulate the evolution of the
multi-phase ISM in a 500 pc x 500 pc x 10 kpc region of a galactic disc, with a
gas surface density of .
The Flash 4.1 simulations include an external potential, self-gravity, magnetic
fields, heating and radiative cooling, time-dependent chemistry of H and CO
considering (self-) shielding, and supernova (SN) feedback. We explore SN
explosions at different (fixed) rates in high-density regions (peak), in random
locations (random), in a combination of both (mixed), or clustered in space and
time (clustered). Only random or clustered models with self-gravity (which
evolve similarly) are in agreement with observations. Molecular hydrogen forms
in dense filaments and clumps and contributes 20% - 40% to the total mass,
whereas most of the mass (55% - 75%) is in atomic hydrogen. The ionised gas
contributes <10%. For high SN rates (0.5 dex above Kennicutt-Schmidt) as well
as for peak and mixed driving the formation of H is strongly suppressed.
Also without self-gravity the H fraction is significantly lower (
5%). Most of the volume is filled with hot gas (90% within 2 kpc).
Only for random or clustered driving, a vertically expanding warm component of
atomic hydrogen indicates a fountain flow. Magnetic fields have little impact
on the final disc structure. However, they affect dense gas () and delay H formation. We highlight that individual chemical
species, in particular atomic hydrogen, populate different ISM phases and
cannot be accurately accounted for by simple temperature-/density-based phase
cut-offs.Comment: 30 pages, 23 figures, submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcome! For
movies of the simulations and download of selected Flash data see the SILCC
website: http://www.astro.uni-koeln.de/silc
The SILCC project: III. Regulation of star formation and outflows by stellar winds and supernovae
We study the impact of stellar winds and supernovae on the multi-phase
interstellar medium using three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations carried
out with FLASH. The selected galactic disc region has a size of (500 pc) x
5 kpc and a gas surface density of 10 M/pc. The simulations
include an external stellar potential and gas self-gravity, radiative cooling
and diffuse heating, sink particles representing star clusters, stellar winds
from these clusters which combine the winds from indi- vidual massive stars by
following their evolution tracks, and subsequent supernova explosions. Dust and
gas (self-)shielding is followed to compute the chemical state of the gas with
a chemical network. We find that stellar winds can regulate star (cluster)
formation. Since the winds suppress the accretion of fresh gas soon after the
cluster has formed, they lead to clusters which have lower average masses
(10 - 10 M) and form on shorter timescales (10 -
10 Myr). In particular we find an anti-correlation of cluster mass and
accretion time scale. Without winds the star clusters easily grow to larger
masses for ~5 Myr until the first supernova explodes. Overall the most massive
stars provide the most wind energy input, while objects beginning their
evolution as B-type stars contribute most of the supernova energy input. A
significant outflow from the disk (mass loading 1 at 1 kpc) can be
launched by thermal gas pressure if more than 50% of the volume near the disc
mid-plane can be heated to T > 3x10 K. Stellar winds alone cannot create a
hot volume-filling phase. The models which are in best agreement with observed
star formation rates drive either no outflows or weak outflows.Comment: 23 pages; submitted to MNRA
Non-Equilibrium Chemistry and Destruction of CO by X-ray Flares
Sources of X-rays such as active galactic nuclei and X-ray binaries are often
variable by orders of magnitude in luminosity over timescales of years. During
and after these flares the surrounding gas is out of chemical and thermal
equilibrium. We introduce a new implementation of X-ray radiative transfer
coupled to a time-dependent chemical network for use in 3D
magnetohydrodynamical simulations. A static fractal molecular cloud is
irradiated with X-rays of different intensity, and the chemical and thermal
evolution of the cloud are studied. For a simulated M fractal
cloud an X-ray flux erg cm s allows the cloud to remain
molecular, whereas most of the CO and H are destroyed for a flux of
erg cm s. The effects of an X-ray flare, which suddenly increases
the X-ray flux by are then studied. A cloud exposed to a bright
flare has 99% of its CO destroyed in 10-20 years, whereas it takes
years for 99% of the H to be destroyed. CO is primarily destroyed by
locally generated far-UV emission from collisions between non-thermal electrons
and H; He only becomes an important destruction agent when the CO
abundance is already very small. After the flare is over, CO re-forms and
approaches its equilibrium abundance after years. This implies that
molecular clouds close to Sgr A in the Galactic Centre may still be out of
chemical equilibrium, and we predict the existence of clouds near flaring X-ray
sources in which CO has been mostly destroyed but H is fully molecular.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; this version has some additions
following the refereeing proces
Dust charge distribution in the interstellar medium
We investigate the equilibrium charge distribution of dust grains in the
interstellar medium (ISM). Our treatment accounts for collisional charging by
electrons and ions, photoelectric charging due to a background interstellar
radiation field, the collection of suprathermal cosmic ray electrons and
photoelectric emission due to a cosmic ray induced ultraviolet radiation field
within dense molecular clouds. We find that the charge equilibrium assumption
is valid throughout the multi-phase ISM conditions investigated here, and
should remain valid for simulations with resolutions down to AU scales. The
charge distribution of dust grains is size, composition, and ISM environment
dependent: local radiation field strength, , temperature, , and electron
number density, . The charge distribution is tightly correlated
with the `charging parameter', . In the molecular
medium, both carbonaceous and silicate grains have predominantly negative or
neutral charges with narrow distributions. In the cold neutral medium,
carbonaceous and silicate grains vary from negative and narrow distributions,
to predominantly positive and wide distributions depending on the magnitude of
the charging parameter. In the warm neutral medium, grains of all sizes are
positively charged with wide distributions. We derive revised parametric
expressions that can be used to recover the charge distribution function of
carbonaceous and silicate grains from 3.5 {\AA} to 0.25 m as a function of
the size, composition and ambient ISM parameters. Finally, we find that the
parametric equations can be used in environments other than Solar neighborhood
conditions, recovering the charge distribution function of dust grains in
photon dominated regions.Comment: 13 pages and 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Code
developed in this paper can be found: https://github.com/jcibanezm/DustCharg
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