Using the adaptive mesh refinement code MG, we perform hydrodynamic simulations of the interaction of a shock with a molecular cloud evolving due to thermal instability and gravity. To explore the relative importance of these processes, three case studies are presented. The first follows the formation of a molecular cloud out of an initially quiescent atomic medium due to the effects of thermal instability and gravity. The second case introduces a shock whilst the cloud is still in the warm atomic phase, and the third scenario introduces a shock once the molecular cloud has formed. The shocks accelerate the global collapse of the clouds with both experiencing local gravitational collapse prior to this. When the cloud is still atomic, the evolution is shock dominated and structures form due to dynamical instabilities within a radiatively cooled shell. While the transmitted shock can potentially trigger the thermal instability, this is prevented as material is shocked multiple times on the order of a cloud crushing time-scale. When the cloud is molecular, the post-shock flow is directed via the pre-existing structure through low-density regions in the inter-clump medium. The clumps are accelerated and deformed as the flow induces clump-clump collisions and mergers that collapse under gravity. For a limited period, both shocked cases show a mixture of Kolmogorov and Burgers turbulence-like velocity and logarithmic density power spectra, and strongly varying density spectra. The clouds presented in this work provide realistic conditions that will be used in future feedback studies.
To understand the formation of a magnetically dominated molecular cloud from an atomic cloud, we study the interaction of a weak, radiative shock with a magnetised cloud. The thermally stable warm atomic cloud is initially in static equilibrium with the surrounding hot ionised gas. A shock propagating through the hot medium then interacts with the cloud. We follow the dynamical evolution of the shocked cloud with a time-dependent ideal magnetohydrodynamic code. By performing the simulations in 3D, we investigate the effect of different magnetic field orientations including parallel, perpendicu…
From integral field data we extract the optical spectra of 20 shocked clouds in the supernova remnant N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Using self-consistent shock modelling, we derive the shock velocity, pre-shock cloud density and shock ram pressure in these clouds. We show that the [Fe X] and [Fe XIV] emission arises in faster, partially radiative shocks moving through the lower density gas near the periphery of the clouds. In these shocks dust has been effectively destroyed, while in the slower cloud shocks the dust destruction is incomplete until the recombination zone of the sho…
Using the adaptive mesh refinement code MG, we perform 3D hydrodynamic simulations of a supernova-cloud interaction in the "large cloud regime". The cloud is initially atomic and evolving due to the thermal instability (TI) and gravity. We study interactions in a "pre-TI" and "post-TI" stage when cold and dense clumps are present, and compare these results to idealised shock-cloud scenarios in the "small cloud regime", and a scenario without shocks. On aggregate, the supernova disruption is significantly weaker than that from an idealised shock due to the supernova impact being instantaneous, …
Star formation can be triggered by compression from shock waves. In this study, we investigated the interaction of hydrodynamic shocks with Bonnor-Ebert spheres using 3D hydrodynamical simulations with self-gravity. Our simulations indicated that the cloud evolution primarily depends on two parameters: the shock speed and initial cloud radius. The stronger shock can compress the cloud more efficiently, and when the central region becomes gravitationally unstable, a shock triggers the cloud contraction. However, if it is excessively strong, it shreds the cloud more violently and the cloud is de…
The interaction of a hot, high-velocity wind with a cold, dense molecular cloud has often been assumed to resemble the evolution of a cloud embedded in a post-shock flow. However, no direct comparative study of these two processes currently exists in the literature. We present 2D adiabatic hydrodynamical simulations of the interaction of a Mach 10 shock with a cloud of density contrast $χ= 10$ and compare our results with those of a commensurate wind-cloud simulation. We then investigate the effect of varying the wind velocity, effectively altering the wind Mach number $M_{wind}$, on the cloud…
The similarities, or otherwise, of a shock or wind interacting with a cloud of density contras t$ χ= 10$ were explored in a previous paper. Here, we investigate such interactions with clouds of higher density contrast. We compare the adiabatic hydrodynamic interaction of a Mach 10 shock with a spherical cloud of $χ= 10^{3}$ with that of a cloud embedded in a wind with identical parameters to the post-shock flow. We find that initially there are only minor morphological differences between the shock-cloud and wind-cloud interactions, compared to when $χ= 10$. However, once the transmitted shock…
The diffuse interstellar medium is dynamic, and its chemistry and evolution is determined by shock fronts as well as photodissociation. Shocks are implied by the supersonic motions and velocity dispersion often statistically called "turbulence". We compare models of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) shocks, with speeds typical of cloud motions through the ISM (3-25 km/s) and densities typical of cold neutral gas (~ 100 cm-3), to archival observations of the atomic hydrogen 21-cm line for gas kinematics, far-infrared emission for dust mass, and mid-infrared emission for high-resolution morphology, to i…
We describe the results of 3D simulations of the interaction of hydrodynamic shocks with Bonnor-Ebert spheres performed with an Adaptive Mesh Refinement code. The calculations are isothermal and the clouds are embedded in a medium in which the sound speed is either four or ten times that in the cloud. The strengths of the shocks are such that they induce gravitational collapse in some cases and not in others and we derive a simple estimate for the shock strength required for this to occur. These results are relevant to dense cores and Bok globules in star forming regions subjected to shocks pr…
We report three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of shocks (${\cal M_{\rm shock}}\geq 4$) interacting with fractal multicloud layers. The evolution of shock-multicloud systems consists of four stages: a shock-splitting phase in which reflected and refracted shocks are generated, a compression phase in which the forward shock compresses cloud material, an expansion phase triggered by internal heating and shock re-acceleration, and a mixing phase in which shear instabilities generate turbulence. We compare multicloud layers with narrow ($σ_ρ=1.9\barρ$) and wide ($σ_ρ=5.9\barρ$) log-normal …
We present numerical simulations of the adiabatic interaction of a shock with a clumpy region containing many individual clouds. Our work incorporates a sub-grid turbulence model which for the first time makes this investigation feasible. We vary the Mach number of the shock, the density contrast of the clouds, and the ratio of total cloud mass to inter-cloud mass within the clumpy region. Cloud material becomes incorporated into the flow. This "mass-loading" reduces the Mach number of the shock, and leads to the formation of a dense shell. In cases in which the mass-loading is sufficient the …
We study the dynamical stability of stationary galactic spiral shocks. The steady-state equilibrium flow contains a shock of the type derived by Roberts in the tightly wound approximation. We find that boundary conditions are critical in determining whether the solutions are stable or not. Shocks are unstable if periodic boundary conditions are imposed. For intermediate strengths of the spiral potential, the instability disappears if boundary conditions are imposed such that the upstream flow is left unperturbed as in the classic analysis of D'yakov and Kontorovich. This reconciles apparently …
Field's linear analysis of thermal instability is repeated using methods related to Whitham's theory of wave hierarchies, which brings out the physically relevant parameters in a much clearer way than in the original analysis. It is also used for the stability of non-equilibrium states and we show that for gas cooling behind a shock, the usual analysis is only quantitatively valid for shocks that are just able to trigger a transition to the cold phase. A magnetic field can readily be included and we show that this does not change the stability criteria. By considering steady shock solutions, w…
Gas in disk galaxies interacts nonlinearly with an underlying stellar spiral potential to form galactic spiral shocks. While numerical simulations typically show that spiral shocks are unstable to wiggle instability (WI) even in the absence of magnetic fields and self-gravity, its physical nature has remained uncertain. To clarify the mechanism behind the WI, we conduct a normal-mode linear stability analysis as well as nonlinear simulations assuming that the disk is isothermal and infinitesimally thin. We find that the WI is physical, originating from the generation of potential vorticity at …
Giant molecular clouds contain supersonic turbulence and simulations of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence show that these supersonic motions decay in roughly a crossing time, which is less than the estimated lifetimes of molecular clouds. Such a situation requires a significant release of energy. We run models of C-type shocks propagating into gas with densities around 10^3 cm^(-3) at velocities of a few km / s, appropriate for the ambient conditions inside of a molecular cloud, to determine which species and transitions dominate the cooling and radiative energy release associated with shock cool…
We present 3D hydrodynamic simulations of the adiabatic interaction of a shock with a dense, spherical cloud. We compare how the nature of the interaction changes with the Mach number of the shock, $M$, and the density contrast of the cloud, $χ$. We examine the differences with 2D axisymmetric calculations, perform detailed resolution tests, and compare "inviscid" results to those obtained with the inclusion of a $k$-$ε$ subgrid turbulence model. Resolutions of 32-64 cells per cloud radius are the minimum necessary to capture the dominant dynamical processes in 3D simulations, while the 3D inv…
The character of star formation is intimately related to the supersonic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulent dynamics of the molecular clouds in which stars form. A significant amount of the turbulent energy dissipates in low velocity shocks. Fast and slow MHD shocks differ in how they compress and heat the molecular gas, and so their radiative signatures reveal distinct physical conditions. We use a two-fluid model to compare one-dimensional fast and slow MHD shocks propagating at low speeds (a few km/s). Fast shocks are magnetically driven, forcing ion species to stream through the neutral ga…
We compare the properties of shocked gas in Sgr B2 with maps obtained from 3D simulations of a collision between two fractal clouds. In agreement with $^{13}$CO(1-0) observations, our simulations show that a cloud-cloud collision produces a region with a highly turbulent density substructure with an average $N_{\rm H2}\gtrsim 5\times10^{22}\,\rm cm^{-2}$. Similarly, our numerical multi-channel shock study shows that colliding clouds are efficient at producing internal shocks with velocities of $5-50\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$ and Mach numbers of $\sim4-40$, which are needed to explain the $\sim 10^{-9}$…
The Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) IC443 is one of the most studied core-collapse SNRs for its interaction with molecular clouds. However, the ambient molecular clouds with which IC443 is interacting have not been thoroughly studied and remain poorly understood. Using Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory 14m telescope, we obtained fully sampled maps of ~ 1° \times 1° region toward IC443 in the 12CO J=1-0 and HCO+ J=1-0 lines. In addition to the previously known molecular clouds in the velocity range v_lsr = -6 to -1 km/s (-3 km/s clouds), our observations reveal two new ambient molecular…
Galactic spiral shocks are dominant morphological features and believed to be responsible for substructure formation within spiral arms in disk galaxies. They can also contribute a substantial amount of kinetic energy to the interstellar gas by tapping the (differential) rotational motion. We use numerical hydrodynamic simulations to investigate dynamics and structure of spiral shocks with thermal instability in vertically stratified galactic disks, focusing on environmental conditions (of heating and the galactic potential) similar to the Solar neighborhood. We initially consider an isotherma…
We present SiO J=2-1 maps of the Sgr B2 molecular cloud, which show shocked gas with a turbulent substructure comprising at least three cavities at velocities of [10,40] km s$^{-1}$ and an arc at velocities of [-20,10] km s$^{-1}$. The spatial anti-correlation of shocked gas at low and high velocities, and the presence of bridging features in position-velocity diagrams suggest that these structures formed in a cloud-cloud collision. Some of the known compact HII regions spatially overlap with sites of strong SiO emission at velocities of [40,85] km s$^{-1}$, and are between or along the edges …
It has been suggested that the wiggle instability (WI) of spiral shocks in a galactic disk is responsible for the formation of gaseous feathers observed in grand-design spiral galaxies. We perform both a linear stability analysis and numerical simulations to investigate the effect of magnetic fields on the WI. The disk is assumed to be infinitesimally-thin, isothermal, and non-self-gravitating. We control the strengths of magnetic fields and spiral-arm forcing using the dimensionless parameters $β$ and $\mathcal{F}$, respectively. By solving the perturbation equations as a boundary-eigenvalue …
The formation of stars occurs in the dense molecular cloud phase of the interstellar medium. Observations and numerical simulations of molecular clouds have shown that supersonic magnetised turbulence plays a key role for the formation of stars. Simulations have also shown that a large fraction of the turbulent energy dissipates in shock waves. The three families of MHD shocks --- fast, intermediate and slow --- distinctly compress and heat up the molecular gas, and so provide an important probe of the physical conditions within a turbulent cloud. Here we introduce the publicly available algor…
We extend the linear analysis of the drag instability in a 1D perpendicular isothermal C-shock by Gu & Chen to 2D perpendicular and oblique C-shocks in the typical environment of star-forming clouds. Simplified dispersion relations are derived for the unstable modes. We find that the mode property of the drag instability generally depends on the ratio of the transverse (normal to the shock flow) to longitudinal (along the shock flow) wavenumber. For the transversely large-scale mode, the growth rate and wave frequency of the drag instability in a 2D shock resemble those in a 1D shock. For the …
Cosmic rays (CRs) are thought to play a dynamically important role in several key aspects of galaxy evolution, including the structure of the interstellar medium, the formation of galactic winds, and the non-thermal pressure support of halos. We introduce a numerical model solving for the CR streaming instability and acceleration of CRs at shocks with a fluid approach in the adaptive mesh refinement code ramses. CR streaming is solved with a diffusion approach and its anisotropic nature is naturally captured. We introduce a shock finder for the ramses code that automatically detects shock disc…
We have searched the Lynds 988 dark cloud complex for optical (\ha{} and \sii{}) and near-IR (\mh{} 2.12 $μ$m) shocks from protostellar outflows. We find 20 new Herbig-Haro objects and 6 new \mh{} shocks (MHO objects), 3 of which are cross detections. Using the morphology in the optical and near-IR, we connect several of these shocks into at least 5 distinct outflow systems and identify their source protostars from catalogs of infrared sources. Two outflows in the cloud, from IRAS 21014+5001 and IRAS 21007+4951, are in excess of 1 pc in length. The IRAS 21007+4951 outflow has carved a large ca…
C-type shocks are believed to be ubiquitous in turbulent molecular clouds thanks to ambipolar diffusion. We investigate whether the drag instability in 1D isothermal C-shocks, inferred from the local linear theory of Gu & Chen, can appear in non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Two C-shock models (with narrow and broad steady-state shock widths) are considered to represent the typical environment of star-forming clouds. The ionization-recombination equilibrium is adopted for the one-fluid approach. In the 1D simulation, the inflow gas is continuously perturbed by a sinusoidal density flu…
We carried out new $^{12}$CO($J$ = 1-0, 3-2) observations of a N63A supernova remnant (SNR) from the LMC using ALMA and ASTE. We find three giant molecular clouds toward the northeast, east, and near the center of the SNR. Using the ALMA data, we spatially resolved clumpy molecular clouds embedded within the optical nebulae in both the shock-ionized and photoionized lobes discovered by previous H$α$ and [S II] observations. The total mass of the molecular clouds is $\sim$$800$ $M_{\odot}$ for the shock-ionized region and $\sim$$1700$ $M_{\odot}$ for the photoionized region. Spatially resolved …
