Cooling, gravity, and geometry: Flow-driven massive core formation
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, trig...
Main Authors: | , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Journal article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Institute of Physics Publishing
2008
|
_version_ | 1797104803020537856 |
---|---|
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 | 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 M⊙. 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. © 2008. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:38:40Z |
format | Journal article |
id | oxford-uuid:f886b934-6109-43ed-9ff2-cb1f00372577 |
institution | University of Oxford |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-07T06:38:40Z |
publishDate | 2008 |
publisher | Institute of Physics Publishing |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | oxford-uuid:f886b934-6109-43ed-9ff2-cb1f003725772022-03-27T12:50:53ZCooling, gravity, and geometry: Flow-driven massive core formationJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:f886b934-6109-43ed-9ff2-cb1f00372577EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordInstitute of Physics Publishing2008Heitsch, FHartmann, LSlyz, ADevriendt, JBurkert, AWe 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 M⊙. 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. © 2008. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
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 |