117 research outputs found
On the evolution of the density pdf in strongly self-gravitating systems
The time evolution of the probability density function (PDF) of the mass
density is formulated and solved for systems in free-fall using a simple
appoximate function for the collapse of a sphere. We demonstrate that a
pressure-free collapse results in a power-law tail on the high-density side of
the PDF. The slope quickly asymptotes to the functional form
for the (volume-weighted) PDF and
for the corresponding mass-weighted
distribution. From the simple approximation of the PDF we derive analytic
descriptions for mass accretion, finding that dynamically quiet systems with
narrow density PDFs lead to retarded star formation and low star formation
rates. Conversely, strong turbulent motions that broaden the PDF accelerate the
collapse causing a bursting mode of star formation. Finally, we compare our
theoretical work with observations. The measured star formation rates are
consistent with our model during the early phases of the collapse. Comparison
of observed column density PDFs with those derived from our model suggests that
observed star-forming cores are roughly in free-fall.Comment: accepted for publication, 13 page
Simulations of cosmic ray propagation
We review numerical methods for simulations of cosmic ray (CR) propagation on
galactic and larger scales. We present the development of algorithms designed
for phenomenological and self-consistent models of CR propagation in kinetic
description based on numerical solutions of the Fokker-Planck equation. The
phenomenological models assume a stationary structure of the galactic
interstellar medium and incorporate diffusion of particles in physical and
momentum space together with advection, spallation, production of secondaries
and various radiation mechanisms. The self-consistent propagation models of CRs
include the dynamical coupling of the CR population to the thermal plasma. The
CR transport equation is discretized and solved numerically together with the
set of magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) equations in various approaches treating the
CR population as a separate relativistic fluid within the two-fluid approach or
as a spectrally resolved population of particles evolving in physical and
momentum space. The relevant processes incorporated in self-consistent models
include advection, diffusion and streaming well as adiabatic compression and
several radiative loss mechanisms.
We discuss applications of the numerical models for the interpretation of CR
data collected by various instruments. We present example models of
astrophysical processes influencing galactic evolution such as galactic winds,
the amplification of large-scale magnetic fields and instabilities of the
interstellar medium.Comment: 99 pages, 13 figures, to be published in the Living Reviews of
Computational Astrophysic
Understanding star formation in molecular clouds I. Effects of line-of-sight contamination on the column density structure
Column-density maps of molecular clouds are one of the most important
observables in the context of molecular cloud- and star-formation (SF) studies.
With the Herschel satellite it is now possible to determine the column density
from dust emission. We use observations and simulations to demonstrate how LOS
contamination affects the column density probability distribution function
(PDF). We apply a first-order approximation (removing a constant level) to the
molecular clouds of Auriga, Maddalena, Carina and NGC3603. In perfect agreement
with the simulations, we find that the PDFs become broader, the peak shifts to
lower column densities, and the power-law tail of the PDF flattens after
correction. All PDFs have a lognormal part for low column densities with a peak
at Av~2, a deviation point (DP) from the lognormal at Av(DP)~4-5, and a
power-law tail for higher column densities. Assuming a density distribution
rho~r^-alpha, the slopes of the power-law tails correspond to alpha(PDF)=1.8,
1.75, and 2.5 for Auriga, Carina, and NGC3603 (alpha~1.5-2 is consistent
gravitational collapse). We find that low-mass and high-mass SF clouds display
differences in the overall column density structure. Massive clouds assemble
more gas in smaller cloud volumes than low-mass SF ones. However, for both
cloud types, the transition of the PDF from lognormal shape into power-law tail
is found at the same column density (at Av~4-5 mag). Low-mass and high-mass SF
clouds then have the same low column density distribution, most likely
dominated by supersonic turbulence. At higher column densities, collapse and
external pressure can form the power-law tail. The relative importance of the
two processes can vary between clouds and thus lead to the observed differences
in PDF and column density structure.Comment: A&A accepted, 15.12. 201
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
The SILCC (SImulating the LifeCycle of molecular Clouds) project - I. Chemical evolution of the supernova-driven ISM
The SILCC (SImulating the Life-Cycle of molecular Clouds) project aims to self-consistently understand the small-scale structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) and its link to galaxy evolution. We simulate the evolution of the multiphase ISM in a (500pc)2×±5kpc region of a galactic disc, with a gas surface density of . The flash 4 simulations include an external potential, self-gravity, magnetic fields, heating and radiative cooling, time-dependent chemistry of H2 and CO considering (self-) shielding, and supernova (SN) feedback but omit shear due to galactic rotation. We explore SN explosions at different rates in high-density regions (peak), in random locations with a Gaussian distribution in the vertical direction (random), in a combination of both (mixed), or clustered in space and time (clus/clus2). Only models with self-gravity and a significant fraction of SNe that explode in low-density gas are in agreement with observations. Without self-gravity and in models with peak driving the formation of H2 is strongly suppressed. For decreasing SN rates, the H2 mass fraction increases significantly from<10 per cent for high SN rates, i.e. 0.5 dex above Kennicutt-Schmidt, to 70-85 per cent for low SN rates, i.e. 0.5 dex below KS. For an intermediate SN rate, clustered driving results in slightly more H2 than random driving due to the more coherent compression of the gas in larger bubbles. Magnetic fields have little impact on the final disc structure but affect the dense gas (n≳10 cm−3) and delay H2 formation. Most of the volume is filled with hot gas (∼80 per cent within ±150pc). For all but peak driving a vertically expanding warm component of atomic hydrogen indicates a fountain flow. We highlight that individual chemical species populate different ISM phases and cannot be accurately modelled with temperature-/density-based phase cut-off
Synthetic dust polarization emission maps at 353 GHz for an observer placed inside a Local Bubble-like cavity
We present a study of synthetic observations of polarized dust emission at
353 GHz as seen by an observer within a cavity in the interstellar medium
(ISM). The cavity is selected from a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the
local ISM with time-dependent chemistry, star formation, and stellar feedback
in form of supernova explosions with physical properties comparable to the
Local Bubble ones. We find that the local density enhancement together with the
coherent magnetic field in the cavity walls makes the selected candidate a
translucent polarization filter to the emission coming from beyond its domains.
This underlines the importance of studying the Local Bubble in further detail.
The magnetic field lines inferred from synthetic dust polarization data are
qualitatively in agreement with the all-sky maps of polarized emission at 353
GHz from the Planck satellite in the latitudes interval 15deg <= |b| <= 65deg.
As our numerical simulation allows us to track the Galactic midplane only out
to distances of 250 pc, we exclude the region |b|<15deg from our analysis. At
large Galactic latitudes, our model exhibits a high degree of small-scale
structures. On the contrary, the observed polarization pattern around the
Galactic poles is relatively coherent and regular, and we argue that the global
toroidal magnetic field of the Milky Way is important for explaining the data
at |b| > 65deg. We show that from our synthetic polarization maps, it is
difficult to distinguish between an open and a closed Galactic cap using the
inferred magnetic field morphology alone
The influence of the turbulent perturbation scale on prestellar core fragmentation and disk formation
The collapse of weakly turbulent prestellar cores is a critical stage in the
process of star formation. Being highly non-linear and stochastic, the outcome
of collapse can only be explored theoretically by performing large ensembles of
numerical simulations. Standard practice is to quantify the initial turbulent
velocity field in a core in terms of the amount of turbulent energy (or some
equivalent) and the exponent in the power spectrum (n \equiv -d log Pk /d log
k). In this paper, we present a numerical study of the influence of the details
of the turbulent velocity field on the collapse of an isolated, weakly
turbulent, low-mass prestellar core. We show that, as long as n > 3 (as is
usually assumed), a more critical parameter than n is the maximum wavelength in
the turbulent velocity field, {\lambda}_MAX. This is because {\lambda}_MAX
carries most of the turbulent energy, and thereby influences both the amount
and the spatial coherence of the angular momentum in the core. We show that the
formation of dense filaments during collapse depends critically on
{\lambda}_MAX, and we explain this finding using a force balance analysis. We
also show that the core only has a high probability of fragmenting if
{\lambda}_MAX > 0.5 R_CORE (where R_CORE is the core radius); that the dominant
mode of fragmentation involves the formation and break-up of filaments; and
that, although small protostellar disks (with radius R_DISK <= 20 AU) form
routinely, more extended disks are rare. In turbulent, low-mass cores of the
type we simulate here, the formation of large, fragmenting protostellar disks
is suppressed by early fragmentation in the filaments.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication by MNRA
Modelling the supernova-driven ISM in different environments
We use hydrodynamical simulations in a (256 pc)3 periodic box to model the impact of supernova (SN) explosions on the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM) for initial densities n=0.5-30cm−3 and SN rates 1-720Myr−1. We include radiative cooling, diffuse heating, and the formation of molecular gas using a chemical network. The SNe explode either at random positions, at density peaks, or both. We further present a model combining thermal energy for resolved and momentum input for unresolved SNe. Random driving at high SN rates results in hot gas (T≳106K) filling >90 per cent of the volume. This gas reaches high pressures (10450 per cent), residing in small, dense clumps. Such a model might resemble the dense ISM in high-redshift galaxies. Peak driving results in huge radiative losses, producing a filamentary ISM with virtually no hot gas, and a small molecular hydrogen mass fraction (≪1 per cent). Varying the ratio of peak to random SNe yields ISM properties in between the two extremes, with a sharp transition for equal contributions. The velocity dispersion in H i remains≲10 km s−1 in all cases. For peak driving, the velocity dispersion in Hα can be as high as 70 km s−1 due to the contribution from young, embedded SN remnant
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