scholarly journals Structure and Dynamics of Magnetized Dark Molecular Clouds

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (H16) ◽  
pp. 386-386
Author(s):  
P. S. Li ◽  
C. F. McKee ◽  
R. I. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Adaptive Mesh Refinement ◽  
Molecular Clouds ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Dynamical Evolution ◽  
Adaptive Mesh ◽  
Magnetized Plasma ◽  
Filamentary Structure ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Self Gravity

Massive infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are believed to be the precursors to star clusters and massive stars (e.g. Bergin & Tafalla 2007). The supersonic, turbulent nature of molecular clouds in the presence of magnetic fields poses a great challenge in understanding the structure and dynamics of magnetized molecular clouds and the star formation therein. Using the high-order radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code ORION2 (Li et al. 2012), we perform a large-scale driven-turbulence simulation to reveal the 3D filamentary structure and dynamical state of a highly supersonic (thermal Mach number = 10) and strongly magnetized (plasma β=0.02) massive infrared dark molecular cloud. With the high resolution afforded by AMR, we follow the dynamical evolution of the cloud in order to understand the roles of strong magnetic fields, turbulence, and self-gravity in shaping the cloud and in the formation of dense cores.

scholarly journals On the fragmentation of filaments in a molecular cloud simulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 610 ◽  
pp. A62 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.-A. Chira ◽  
J. Kainulainen ◽  
J. C. Ibáñez-Mejía ◽  
Th. Henning ◽  
M.-M. Mac Low
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulations ◽  
Molecular Cloud ◽  
Adaptive Mesh Refinement ◽  
Molecular Clouds ◽  
Column Density ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Dynamic Compression ◽  
Analytical Models ◽  
Density Maps ◽  
Self Gravity

Context. The fragmentation of filaments in molecular clouds has attracted a lot of attention recently as there seems to be a close relation between the evolution of filaments and star formation. The study of the fragmentation process has been motivated by simple analytical models. However, only a few comprehensive studies have analysed the evolution of filaments using numerical simulations where the filaments form self-consistently as part of large-scale molecular cloud evolution. Aim. We address the early evolution of parsec-scale filaments that form within individual clouds. In particular, we focus on three questions: How do the line masses of filaments evolve? How and when do the filaments fragment? How does the fragmentation relate to the line masses of the filaments? Methods. We examine three simulated molecular clouds formed in kiloparsec-scale numerical simulations performed with the FLASH adaptive mesh refinement magnetohydrodynamic code. The simulations model a self-gravitating, magnetised, stratified, supernova-driven interstellar medium, including photoelectric heating and radiative cooling. We follow the evolution of the clouds for 6 Myr from the time self-gravity starts to act. We identify filaments using the DisPerSe algorithm, and compare the results to other filament-finding algorithms. We determine the properties of the identified filaments and compare them with the predictions of analytic filament stability models. Results. The average line masses of the identified filaments, as well as the fraction of mass in filamentary structures, increases fairly continuously after the onset of self-gravity. The filaments show fragmentation starting relatively early: the first fragments appear when the line masses lie well below the critical line mass of Ostriker’s isolated hydrostatic equilibrium solution (~16 M⊙ pc−1), commonly used as a fragmentation criterion. The average line masses of filaments identified in three-dimensional volume density cubes increases far more quickly than those identified in two-dimensional column density maps. Conclusions. Our results suggest that hydrostatic or dynamic compression from the surrounding cloud has a significant impact on the early dynamical evolution of filaments. A simple model of an isolated, isothermal cylinder may not provide a good approach for fragmentation analysis. Caution must be exercised in interpreting distributions of properties of filaments identified in column density maps, especially in the case of low-mass filaments. Comparing or combining results from studies that use different filament finding techniques is strongly discouraged.

scholarly journals Striations, integrals, hourglasses, and collapse – thermal instability driven magnetic simulations of molecular clouds

2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (3) ◽  
pp. 2831-2849
Author(s):  
C J Wareing ◽  
J M Pittard ◽  
S A E G Falle
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Adaptive Mesh Refinement ◽  
Thermal Instability ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Power Spectra ◽  
Adaptive Mesh ◽  
Spherical Cloud ◽  
Field Lines ◽  
Self Gravity

ABSTRACT The MHD version of the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code, MG, has been employed to study the interaction of thermal instability, magnetic fields, and gravity through 3D simulations of the formation of collapsing cold clumps on the scale of a few parsecs, inside a larger molecular cloud. The diffuse atomic initial condition consists of a stationary, thermally unstable, spherical cloud in pressure equilibrium with lower density surroundings and threaded by a uniform magnetic field. This cloud was seeded with 10 per cent density perturbations at the finest initial grid level around n = 1.1 cm−3 and evolved with self-gravity included from the outset. Several cloud diameters were considered (100, 200, and 400 pc) equating to several cloud masses (17 000, 136 000, and 1.1 × 106 M⊙). Low-density magnetic-field-aligned striations were observed as the clouds collapse along the field lines into disc-like structures. The induced flow along field lines leads to oscillations of the sheet about the gravitational minimum and an integral-shaped appearance. When magnetically supercritical, the clouds then collapse and generate hourglass magnetic field configurations with strongly intensified magnetic fields, reproducing observational behaviour. Resimulation of a region of the highest mass cloud at higher resolution forms gravitationally bound collapsing clumps within the sheet that contain clump-frame supersonic (M ∼ 5) and super-Alfvénic (MA ∼ 4) velocities. Observationally realistic density and velocity power spectra of the cloud and densest clump are obtained. Future work will use these realistic initial conditions to study individual star and cluster feedback.

scholarly journals Magnetized interstellar molecular clouds – II. The large-scale structure and dynamics of filamentary molecular clouds

2019 ◽  
Vol 485 (4) ◽  
pp. 4509-4528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pak Shing Li ◽  
Richard I Klein
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Strong Magnetic Field ◽  
Adaptive Mesh Refinement ◽  
Molecular Clouds ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Velocity Structure ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Adaptive Mesh ◽  
Dark Cloud ◽  
The Magnetic Field

Abstract We perform ideal magnetohydrodynamics high-resolution adaptive mesh refinement simulations with driven turbulence and self-gravity and find that long filamentary molecular clouds are formed at the converging locations of large-scale turbulence flows and the filaments are bounded by gravity. The magnetic field helps shape and reinforce the long filamentary structures. The main filamentary cloud has a length of ∼4.4 pc. Instead of a monolithic cylindrical structure, the main cloud is shown to be a collection of fibre/web-like substructures similar to filamentary clouds such as L1495. Unless the line-of-sight is close to the mean field direction, the large-scale magnetic field and striations in the simulation are found roughly perpendicular to the long axis of the main cloud, similar to L1495. This provides strong support for a large-scale moderately strong magnetic field surrounding L1495. We find that the projection effect from observations can lead to incorrect interpretations of the true three-dimensional physical shape, size, and velocity structure of the clouds. Helical magnetic field structures found around filamentary clouds that are interpreted from Zeeman observations can be explained by a simple bending of the magnetic field that pierces through the cloud. We demonstrate that two dark clouds form a T-shaped configuration that is strikingly similar to the infrared dark cloud SDC13, leading to the interpretation that SDC13 results from a collision of two long filamentary clouds. We show that a moderately strong magnetic field (${{\cal M}_{\rm A}}\sim 1$) is crucial for maintaining a long and slender filamentary cloud for a long period of time ∼0.5 Myr.

scholarly journals Insights into the physics when modelling cold gas clouds in a hot plasma

2019 ◽  
Vol 490 (1) ◽  
pp. L52-L56
Author(s):  
Bastian Sander ◽  
Gerhard Hensler
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Mesh Refinement ◽  
Adaptive Mesh ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Interstellar Clouds ◽  
Hot Plasma ◽  
Magnetic Dipole Field ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Self Gravity ◽  
Cold Gas

ABSTRACT This paper aims at studying the reliability of a few frequently raised, but not proven, arguments for the modelling of cold gas clouds embedded in or moving through a hot plasma and at sensitizing modellers to a more careful consideration of unavoidable acting physical processes and their relevance. At first, by numerical simulations we demonstrate the growing effect of self-gravity on interstellar clouds and, by this, moreover argue against their initial set-up as homogeneous. We apply the adaptive-mesh refinement code flash with extensions to metal-dependent radiative cooling and external heating of the gas, self-gravity, mass diffusion, and semi-analytic dissociation of molecules, and ionization of atoms. We show that the criterion of Jeans mass or Bonnor–Ebert mass, respectively, provides only a sufficient but not a necessary condition for self-gravity to be effective, because even low-mass clouds are affected on reasonable dynamical time-scales. The second part of this paper is dedicated to analytically study the reduction of heat conduction by a magnetic dipole field. We demonstrate that in this configuration, the effective heat flow, i.e. integrated over the cloud surface, is suppressed by only 32 per cent by magnetic fields in energy equipartition and still insignificantly for even higher field strengths.

scholarly journals EDGE: a new approach to suppressing numerical diffusion in adaptive mesh simulations of galaxy formation

2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (2) ◽  
pp. 1755-1765
Author(s):  
Andrew Pontzen ◽  
Martin P Rey ◽  
Corentin Cadiou ◽  
Oscar Agertz ◽  
Romain Teyssier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Galaxy Formation ◽  
Adaptive Mesh Refinement ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Dwarf Galaxy ◽  
High Redshift ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Adaptive Mesh ◽  
Numerical Diffusion

ABSTRACT We introduce a new method to mitigate numerical diffusion in adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) simulations of cosmological galaxy formation, and study its impact on a simulated dwarf galaxy as part of the ‘EDGE’ project. The target galaxy has a maximum circular velocity of $21\, \mathrm{km}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}$ but evolves in a region that is moving at up to $90\, \mathrm{km}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}$ relative to the hydrodynamic grid. In the absence of any mitigation, diffusion softens the filaments feeding our galaxy. As a result, gas is unphysically held in the circumgalactic medium around the galaxy for $320\, \mathrm{Myr}$, delaying the onset of star formation until cooling and collapse eventually triggers an initial starburst at z = 9. Using genetic modification, we produce ‘velocity-zeroed’ initial conditions in which the grid-relative streaming is strongly suppressed; by design, the change does not significantly modify the large-scale structure or dark matter accretion history. The resulting simulation recovers a more physical, gradual onset of star formation starting at z = 17. While the final stellar masses are nearly consistent ($4.8 \times 10^6\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ and $4.4\times 10^6\, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$ for unmodified and velocity-zeroed, respectively), the dynamical and morphological structure of the z = 0 dwarf galaxies are markedly different due to the contrasting histories. Our approach to diffusion suppression is suitable for any AMR zoom cosmological galaxy formation simulations, and is especially recommended for those of small galaxies at high redshift.

scholarly journals Turbulent structure and star formation in a stratified, supernova-driven, interstellar medium

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S237) ◽  
pp. 358-362
Author(s):  
M. K. Ryan Joung ◽  
Mordecai-Mark Mac Low
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Interstellar Medium ◽  
Adaptive Mesh Refinement ◽  
Formation Rate ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Adaptive Mesh ◽  
Mass Function ◽  
Initial Mass Function ◽  
Interstellar Turbulence ◽  
Self Gravity

AbstractWe report on a study of interstellar turbulence driven by both correlated and isolated supernova explosions. We use three-dimensional hydrodynamic models of a vertically stratified interstellar medium run with the adaptive mesh refinement code Flash at a maximum resolution of 2 pc, with a grid size of 0.5 × 0.5 × 10 kpc. Cold dense clouds form even in the absence of self-gravity due to the collective action of thermal instability and supersonic turbulence. Studying these clouds, we show that it can be misleading to predict physical properties such as the star formation rate or the stellar initial mass function using numerical simulations that do not include self-gravity of the gas. Even if all the gas in turbulently Jeans unstable regions in our simulation is assumed to collapse and form stars in local freefall times, the resulting total collapse rate is significantly lower than the value consistent with the input supernova rate. The amount of mass available for collapse depends on scale, suggesting a simple translation from the density PDF to the stellar IMF may be questionable. Even though the supernova-driven turbulence does produce compressed clouds, it also opposes global collapse. The net effect of supernova-driven turbulence is to inhibit star formation globally by decreasing the amount of mass unstable to gravitational collapse.

scholarly journals Could bow-shaped magnetic morphologies surround filamentary molecular clouds?

2019 ◽  
Vol 632 ◽  
pp. A68 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Tahani ◽  
R. Plume ◽  
J. C. Brown ◽  
J. D. Soler ◽  
J. Kainulainen
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Faraday Rotation ◽  
Molecular Clouds ◽  
Monte Carlo Analysis ◽  
Line Of Sight ◽  
Field Reversal ◽  
Filamentary Structure ◽  
Western Side

Context. A new method based on Faraday rotation measurements recently found the line-of-sight component of magnetic fields in Orion-A and showed that their direction changes from the eastern side of this filamentary structure to its western side. Three possible magnetic field morphologies that can explain this reversal across the Orion-A region are toroidal, helical, and bow-shaped morphologies. Aims. In this paper, we constructed simple models to represent these three morphologies and compared them with the available observational data to find the most probable morphology(ies). Methods. We compared the observations with the models and used probability values and a Monte Carlo analysis to determine the most likely magnetic field morphology among these three morphologies. Results. We found that the bow morphology had the highest probability values, and that our Monte-Carlo analysis suggested that the bow morphology was more likely. Conclusions. We suggest that the bow morphology is the most likely and the most natural of the three morphologies that could explain a magnetic field reversal across the Orion-A filamentary structure (i.e., bow, helical and toroidal morphologies).

scholarly journals Waves and Oscillations in Magnetic Fluxtubes

1990 ◽  
Vol 138 ◽  
pp. 229-249
Author(s):  
M.P. Ryutova
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
Solar Atmosphere ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Gas Flows ◽  
Solar Magnetic Fields ◽  
Filamentary Structure ◽  
Associated Gas ◽  
Structure And Dynamics ◽  
Theoretical Investigations

According to observational data solar magnetic fields have a pronounced filamentary structure. Theoretical investigations of plasmas containing structured magnetic fields, including the study of the properties of these structures and their interactions with associated gas flows, are of great importance for our understanding of the basic processes in the solar atmosphere, whose structure and dynamics are dominated by magnetic fields. In the present review theoretical models of thin magnetic fluxtubes and their behaviour in the ambient plasma are discussed.

scholarly journals Filament Formation in Molecular Clouds as a Scale-Free Process

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (A29B) ◽  
pp. 709-710
Author(s):  
Enrique Vázquez-Semadeni ◽  
Gilberto Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Molecular Clouds ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Filament Formation ◽  
Molecular Line ◽  
Scale Free ◽  
The Core ◽  
Free Process ◽  
Self Gravity

AbstractWe discuss the formation of filaments in molecular clouds (MCs) as the result of large-scale collapse in the clouds. We first give arguments suggesting that self-gravity dominates the nonthermal motions, and then briefly describe the resulting structure, similar to that found in molecular-line and dust observations of the filaments in the clouds. The filaments exhibit a hierarchical structure in both density and velocity, suggesting a scale-free nature, similar to that of the cosmic web, resulting from the domination of self-gravity from the MC down to the core scale.

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