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arXiv 0811.1035astro-ph
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辐射反馈对恒星初始质量函数的重要性

The Importance of Radiative Feedback for the Stellar Initial Mass Function

Matthew R. Bate

摘要:

利用辐射流体动力学模拟研究了辐射反馈对恒星形成过程的影响。我们重复之前Bate等人的流体动力学恒星团簇形成模拟,和Bate & Bonnell,但是我们在通量限制扩散近似中使用了一个实际的气体状态方程和辐射转移,而不是原来的正压状态方程。而恒星形成的正压模拟继续有增无减,直到模拟停止,我们发现,辐射反馈基本上终止后,大约一个本地动态时间的新对象的生产。辐射反馈也会显著降低大质量拱星盘的碎裂倾向,并抑制靠近现有原恒星物体的其他致密气体(如细丝)的碎裂。这两种效应使原恒星的数量减少了大约4倍。虽然最初的模拟产生的棕矮星比恒星多,但辐射反馈导致恒星与棕矮星的比例约为5:1,与观测结果更吻合。最重要的是,我们发现,虽然在原始计算的特征恒星质量与初始平均金斯质量线性缩放,当辐射反馈包括特征恒星质量是不可区分的两个计算。因此,我们提出,观测到的初始质量函数似乎是普遍的原因是由于辐射反馈的恒星形成过程的自我调节。我们提出了一个分析参数,显示如何可以得出一个特征质量,是相对独立的初始条件,如云的密度。(节录)

英文摘要:

We investigate the effect of radiative feedback on the star formation process using radiation hydrodynamical simulations. We repeat the previous hydrodynamical star cluster formation simulations of Bate et al., and Bate & Bonnell, but we use a realistic gas equation of state and radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion approximation rather than the original barotropic equation of state. Whereas star formation in the barotropic simulations continued unabated until the simulation was stopped, we find that radiative feedback essentially terminates the production of new objects after roughly one local dynamical time. Radiative feedback also dramatically decreases the propensity of massive circumstellar discs to fragment and inhibits fragmentation of other dense gas (e.g. filaments) close to existing protostellar objects. These two effects decrease the numbers of protostars formed by a factor of approximately 4. Whereas the original simulations produced more brown dwarfs than stars, the radiative feedback results in a ratio of stars to brown dwarfs of approximately 5:1, in much better agreement with observations. Most importantly, we find that although the characteristic stellar mass in the original calculations scaled linearly with the initial mean Jeans mass, when radiative feedback is included the characteristic stellar mass is indistinguishable for the two calculations. We thus propose that the reason the observed initial mass function appears to be universal is due to self-regulation of the star formation process by radiative feedback. We present an analytic argument showing how a characteristic mass may be derived that is relatively independent of initial conditions such as the cloud's density. (Abridged)

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