Cooling, gravity and geometry: flow-driven massive core formation
<p>We study numerically the formation of molecular clouds in large-scale colliding flows including self-gravity. The models emphasize the competition between the effects of gravity on global and local scales in an isolated cloud. Global gravity builds up large-scale filaments, while local gra...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Published: |
American Astronomical Society
2008
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| _version_ | 1797066255790768128 |
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| author | Heitsch, F Hartmann, L Slyz, A Devriendt, J Burkert, A |
| author_facet | Heitsch, F Hartmann, L Slyz, A Devriendt, J Burkert, A |
| author_sort | Heitsch, F |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>We study numerically the formation of molecular clouds in large-scale colliding flows including self-gravity. The models emphasize the competition between the effects of gravity on global and local scales in an isolated cloud. Global gravity builds up large-scale filaments, while local gravity, triggered by a combination of strong thermal and dynamical instabilities, causes cores to form. The dynamical instabilities give rise to a local focusing of the colliding flows, facilitating the rapid formation of massive protostellar cores of a few hundred <i>M</i><sub>☉</sub>. The forming clouds do not reach an equilibrium state, although the motions within the clouds appear to be comparable to virial. The self-similar core mass distributions derived from models with and without self-gravity indicate that the core mass distribution is set very early on during the cloud formation process, predominantly by a combination of thermal and dynamical instabilities rather than by self-gravity.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T21:39:51Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:4789c91a-603b-4940-b508-401d40e0828e |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T21:39:51Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| publisher | American Astronomical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:4789c91a-603b-4940-b508-401d40e0828e2022-03-26T15:20:39ZCooling, gravity and geometry: flow-driven massive core formationJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:4789c91a-603b-4940-b508-401d40e0828eSymplectic Elements at OxfordAmerican Astronomical Society2008Heitsch, FHartmann, LSlyz, ADevriendt, JBurkert, A <p>We study numerically the formation of molecular clouds in large-scale colliding flows including self-gravity. The models emphasize the competition between the effects of gravity on global and local scales in an isolated cloud. Global gravity builds up large-scale filaments, while local gravity, triggered by a combination of strong thermal and dynamical instabilities, causes cores to form. The dynamical instabilities give rise to a local focusing of the colliding flows, facilitating the rapid formation of massive protostellar cores of a few hundred <i>M</i><sub>☉</sub>. The forming clouds do not reach an equilibrium state, although the motions within the clouds appear to be comparable to virial. The self-similar core mass distributions derived from models with and without self-gravity indicate that the core mass distribution is set very early on during the cloud formation process, predominantly by a combination of thermal and dynamical instabilities rather than by self-gravity.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Heitsch, F Hartmann, L Slyz, A Devriendt, J Burkert, A Cooling, gravity and geometry: flow-driven massive core formation |
| title | Cooling, gravity and geometry: flow-driven massive core formation |
| title_full | Cooling, gravity and geometry: flow-driven massive core formation |
| title_fullStr | Cooling, gravity and geometry: flow-driven massive core formation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cooling, gravity and geometry: flow-driven massive core formation |
| title_short | Cooling, gravity and geometry: flow-driven massive core formation |
| title_sort | cooling gravity and geometry flow driven massive core formation |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heitschf coolinggravityandgeometryflowdrivenmassivecoreformation AT hartmannl coolinggravityandgeometryflowdrivenmassivecoreformation AT slyza coolinggravityandgeometryflowdrivenmassivecoreformation AT devriendtj coolinggravityandgeometryflowdrivenmassivecoreformation AT burkerta coolinggravityandgeometryflowdrivenmassivecoreformation |