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...

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Main Authors: Heitsch, F, Hartmann, L, Slyz, A, Devriendt, J, Burkert, A
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Institute of Physics Publishing 2008
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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 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.
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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
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AT hartmannl coolinggravityandgeometryflowdrivenmassivecoreformation
AT slyza coolinggravityandgeometryflowdrivenmassivecoreformation
AT devriendtj coolinggravityandgeometryflowdrivenmassivecoreformation
AT burkerta coolinggravityandgeometryflowdrivenmassivecoreformation