314 research outputs found
Ionization--induced star formation V: Triggering in partially unbound clusters
We present the fourth in a series of papers detailing our SPH study of the
effects of ionizing feedback from O--type stars on turbulent star forming
clouds. Here, we study the effects of photoionization on a series of initially
partially unbound clouds with masses ranging from --M
and initial sizes from 2.5-45pc. We find that ionizing feedback profoundly
affects the structure of the gas in most of our model clouds, creating large
and often well-cleared bubble structures and pillars. However, changes in the
structures of the embedded clusters produced are much weaker and not well
correlated to the evolution of the gas. We find that in all cases, star
formation efficiencies and rates are reduced by feedback and numbers of objects
increased, relative to control simulations. We find that local triggered star
formation does occur and that there is a good correlation between triggered
objects and pillars or bubble walls, but that triggered objects are often
spatially-mixed with those formed spontaneously. Some triggered objects acquire
large enough masses to become ionizing sources themselves, lending support to
the concept of propagating star formation. We find scant evidence for spatial
age gradients in most simulations, and where we do see them, they are not a
good indicator of triggering, as they apply equally to spontaneously-formed
objects as triggered ones. Overall, we conclude that inferring the global or
local effects of feedback on stellar populations from observing a system at a
single epoch is very problematic.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures (mostly degraded to get under the submission
size limit), accepted by MNRA
Ionizing feedback from massive stars in massive clusters III: Disruption of partially unbound clouds
We extend our previous SPH parameter study of the effects of photoionization
from O-stars on star-forming clouds to include initially unbound clouds. We
generate a set of model clouds in the mass range M
with initial virial ratios =2.3, allow them to form
stars, and study the impact of the photoionizing radiation produced by the
massive stars. We find that, on the 3Myr timescale before supernovae are
expected to begin detonating, the fractions of mass expelled by ionizing
feedback is a very strong function of the cloud escape velocities. High-mass
clouds are largely unaffected dynamically, while lower-mass clouds have large
fractions of their gas reserves expelled on this timescale. However, the
fractions of stellar mass unbound are modest and significant portions of the
unbound stars are so only because the clouds themselves are initially partially
unbound. We find that ionization is much more able to create well-cleared
bubbles in the unbound clouds, owing to their intrinsic expansion, but that the
presence of such bubbles does not necessarily indicate that a given cloud has
been strongly influenced by feedback. We also find, in common with the bound
clouds from our earlier work, that many of the systems simulated here are
highly porous to photons and supernova ejecta, and that most of them will
likely survive their first supernova explosions.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures (some degraded and greyscaled), accepted by
MNRA
The timing and location of dust formation in the remnant of SN 1987A
The discovery with the {\it Herschel Space Observatory} of bright far
infrared and submm emission from the ejecta of the core collapse supernova
SN\,1987A has been interpreted as indicating the presence of some
0.4--0.7\,M of dust. We have constructed radiative transfer models of
the ejecta to fit optical to far-infrared observations from the literature at
epochs between 615 days and 24 years after the explosion, to determine when and
where this unexpectedly large amount of dust formed.
We find that the observations by day 1153 are consistent with the presence of
310M of dust. Although this is a larger amount than has
previously been considered possible at this epoch, it is still very small
compared to the amount present in the remnant after 24 years, and significantly
higher dust masses at the earlier epochs are firmly ruled out by the
observations, indicating that the majority of the dust must have formed at very
late times. By 8515-9200 days after the explosion, 0.6--0.8\,M of dust
is present, and dust grains with radii greater than 2\,m are required to
obtain a fit to the observed SED. This suggests that the dust mass increase at
late times was caused by accretion onto and coagulation of the dust grains
formed at earlier epochs.
These findings provide further confirmation that core collapse supernovae can
create large quantities of dust, and indicate that the reason for small dust
masses being estimated in many cases is that the vast majority of the dust
forms long after most supernovae have been detectable at mid-infrared
wavelengths.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Protoplanetary disc evolution and dispersal: the implications of X-ray photoevaportion
(Abridged) We explore the role of X-ray photoevaporation in the evolution and
dispersal of viscously evolving T-Tauri discs. We show that the X-ray
photoevaporation wind rates scale linearly with X-ray luminosity, such that the
observed range of X-ray luminosities for solar-type T-Tauri stars (10e28-10e31
erg\s) gives rise to vigorous disc winds with rates of order 10e-10-10e-7
M_sun/yr. We use the wind solutions from radiation-hydrodynamic models, coupled
to a viscous evolution model to construct a population synthesis model so that
we may study the physical properties of evolving discs and so-called
`transition discs'. Current observations of disc lifetimes and accretion rates
can be matched by our model assuming a viscosity parameter alpha = 2.5e-3. Our
models confirm that X-rays play a dominant role in the evolution and dispersal
of protoplanetary discs giving rise to the observed diverse population of inner
hole `transition' sources which include those with massive outer discs, those
with gas in their inner holes and those with detectable accretion signatures.
To help understand the nature of observed transition discs we present a
diagnostic diagram based on accretion rates versus inner hole sizes that
demonstrate that, contrary to recent claims, many of the observed accreting and
non accreting transition discs can easily be explained by X-ray
photoevaporation. Finally, we confirm the conjecture of Drake et al. (2009),
that accretion is suppressed by the X-rays through `photoevaporation starved
accretion' and predict this effect can give rise to a negative correlation
between X-ray luminosity and accretion rate, as reported in the Orion data.Comment: Figure 12 and 13 have been updated. In the original version the
results from an unused model run were plotted by mistak
Mocassin: A fully three-dimensional Monte Carlo photoionization code
The study of photoionized environments is fundamental to many astrophysical
problems. Up to the present most photoionization codes have numerically solved
the equations of radiative transfer by making the extreme simplifying
assumption of spherical symmetry. Unfortunately very few real astronomical
nebulae satisfy this requirement. To remedy these shortcomings, a
self-consistent, three-dimensional radiative transfer code has been developed
using Monte Carlo techniques. The code, Mocassin, is designed to build
realistic models of photoionized nebulae having arbitraries geometry and
density distributions with both the stellar and diffuse radiation fields
treated self-consistently. In addition, the code is capable of tretating on or
more exciting stars located at non-central locations. The gaseous region is
approximated by a cuboidal Cartesian grid composed of numerous cells. The
physical conditions within each grid cell are determined by solving the thermal
equilibrium and ionization balance equations This requires a knowledge of the
local primary and secondary radiation fields, which are calculated
self-consistently by locally simulating the individual processes of ionization
and recombination. The main structure and computational methods used in the
Mocassin code are described in this paper. Mocassin has been benchmarked
against established one-dimensional spherically symmetric codes for a number of
standard cases, as defined by the Lexington/Meudon photoionization workshops
(Pequignot et al., 1986; Ferland et al., 1995; Pequignot et al.,
2001)\citep{pequignot86,ferland95, pequignot01}. The results obtained for the
benchmark cases are satisfactory and are presented in this paper. A performance
analysis has also been carried out and is discussed here.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 1 appendix Changes: appendix adde
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