The Formation and Destruction of Molecular Clouds and Galactic Star Formation

We describe an overall picture of galactic-scale star formation. Recent high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of two-fluid dynamics with cooling/heating and thermal conduction have shown that the formation of molecular clouds requires multiple episodes of supersonic compression. This finding enables us to create a scenario in which molecular clouds form in interacting shells or bubbles on a galactic scale. First we estimate the ensemble-averaged growth rate of molecular clouds over a timescale larger than a million years. Next we perform radiation hydrodynamics simulations to evaluate the destruction rate of magnetized molecular clouds by the stellar FUV radiation. We also investigate the resultant star formation efficiency within a cloud which amounts to a low value (a few percent) if we adopt the power-law exponent -2.5 for the mass distribution of stars in the cloud. We finally describe the time evolution of the mass function of molecular clouds over a long timescale (>1Myr) and discuss the steady state exponent of the power-law slope in various environments.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

A Constraint on the Amount of Hydrogen from the CO Chemistry in Debris Disks

The faint CO gases in debris disks are easily dissolved into C by UV irradiation, while CO can be reformed via reactions with hydrogen. The abundance ratio of C/CO could thus be a probe of the amount of hydrogen in the debris disks. We conduct radiative transfer calculations with chemical reactions for debris disks. For a typical dust-to-gas mass ratio of debris disks, CO formation proceeds without the involvement of H$_2$ because a small amount of dust grains makes H$_2$ formation inefficient. We find that the CO to C number density ratio depends on a combination of $n_\mathrm{H}Z^{0.4}\chi^{-1.1}$, where $n_\mathrm{H}$ is the hydrogen nucleus number density, $Z$ is the metallicity, and $\chi$ is the FUV flux normalized by the Habing flux. Using an analytic formula for the CO number density, we give constraints on the amount of hydrogen and metallicity for debris disks. CO formation is accelerated by excited H$_2$ either when the dust-to-gas mass ratio is increased or the energy barrier of chemisorption of hydrogen on the dust surface is decreased. This acceleration of CO formation occurs only when the shielding effects of CO are insignificant. In shielded regions, the CO fractions are almost independent of the parameters of dust grains.Comment: 29pages, 13figures, accepted for Ap

Metallicity Dependence of Molecular Cloud Hierarchical Structure at Early Evolutionary Stages

The formation of molecular clouds out of HI gas is the first step toward star formation. Its metallicity dependence plays a key role to determine star formation through the cosmic history. Previous theoretical studies with detailed chemical networks calculate thermal equilibrium states and/or thermal evolution under one-zone collapsing background. The molecular cloud formation in reality, however, involves supersonic flows, and thus resolving the cloud internal turbulence/density structure in three dimension is still essential. We here perform magnetohydrodynamics simulations of 20 km s^-1 converging flows of Warm Neutral Medium (WNM) with 1 uG mean magnetic field in the metallicity range from the Solar (1.0 Zsun) to 0.2 Zsun environment. The Cold Neutral Medium (CNM) clumps form faster with higher metallicity due to more efficient cooling. Meanwhile, their mass functions commonly follow dn/dm proportional to m^-1.7 at three cooling times regardless of the metallicity. Their total turbulence power also commonly shows the Kolmogorov spectrum with its 80 percent in the solenoidal mode, while the CNM volume alone indicates the transition towards the Larson's law. These similarities measured at the same time in the unit of the cooling time suggest that the molecular cloud formation directly from the WNM alone requires a longer physical time in a lower metallicity environment in the 1.0-0.2 Zsun range. To explain the rapid formation of molecular clouds and subsequent massive star formation possibly within 10 Myr as observed in the Large/Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC/SMC), the HI gas already contains CNM volume instead of pure WNM.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap