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arXiv 0811.0207astro-ph
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星盘星系中的恒星形成I.引力不稳定性和云碰撞导致的巨分子云的形成和演化

Star Formation in Disk Galaxies. I. Formation and Evolution of Giant Molecular Clouds via Gravitational Instability and Cloud Collisions

Elizabeth J. Tasker, Jonathan C. Tan

摘要:

研究了一个具有平坦自转曲线的银河状盘星系中巨分子云的形成和演化。我们进行了一系列的三维自适应网格细化(AMR)的数值模拟,遵循的全球演化的尺度上的~ 20千秒差距,并解决到尺度~<10秒差距的多相原子星际介质(ISM)。在这第一项研究中,我们省略了恒星的形成和反馈,并专注于引力不稳定性和云碰撞和相互作用的过程。我们将云定义为n_H>= 100 cm ^-3的区域,并跟踪单个云在银河系中从诞生到最终通过合并或通过与另一个云的破坏性碰撞而毁灭的演化过程。在约1.4亿年后,盘中的大部分气体碎裂成质量约为10^6兆太阳的云,其质谱与银河系GMC相似。这个圆盘进入一个准稳定状态,在这个状态中,云的引力散射使圆盘保持在全球引力不稳定的阈值附近。云的碰撞时间被发现是一个很小的分数,~1/5,轨道时间,这是一个有效的机制,注入湍流到云。这有助于保持云只有适度的引力约束,维里参数的秩序统一。许多其他观测到的GMC性质,如质量表面密度,角动量,速度色散和垂直分布,可以在这个简单的模型中没有恒星反馈。

英文摘要:

We investigate the formation and evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in a Milky-Way-like disk galaxy with a flat rotation curve. We perform a series of 3D adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) numerical simulations that follow both the global evolution on scales of ~20kpc and resolve down to scales ~<10pc with a multiphase atomic interstellar medium (ISM). In this first study, we omit star formation and feedback, and focus on the processes of gravitational instability and cloud collisions and interactions. We define clouds as regions with n_H>=100cm^-3 and track the evolution of individual clouds as they orbit through the galaxy from their birth to their eventual destruction via merger or via destructive collision with another cloud. After ~140Myr a large fraction of the gas in the disk has fragmented into clouds with masses ~10^6 Msun and a mass spectrum similar to that of Galactic GMCs. The disk settles into a quasi steady state in which gravitational scattering of clouds keeps the disk near the threshold of global gravitational instability. The cloud collision time is found to be a small fraction, ~1/5, of the orbital time, and this is an efficient mechanism to inject turbulence into the clouds. This helps to keep clouds only moderately gravitationally bound, with virial parameters of order unity. Many other observed GMC properties, such as mass surface density, angular momentum, velocity dispersion, and vertical distribution, can be accounted for in this simple model with no stellar feedback.

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