Fragmentation in molecular clouds and its connection to the IMF

Smith, Rowan J., Clark, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4834-043X and Bonnell, Ian A. 2009. Fragmentation in molecular clouds and its connection to the IMF. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 396 (2) , pp. 830-841. 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14794.x

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Abstract

We present an analysis of star-forming gas cores in a smooth particle hydrodynamics simulation of a giant molecular cloud. We identify cores using their deep potential wells. This yields a smoother distribution with clearer boundaries than density. Additionally, this gives an indication of future collapse, as bound potential cores (p-cores) represent the earliest stages of fragmentation in molecular clouds. We find that the mass function of the p-cores resembles the stellar initial mass function and the observed clump mass function, although p-core masses (∼0.7 M⊙) are smaller than typical density clumps. The bound p-cores are generally subsonic, have internal substructure and are only quasi-spherical. We see no evidence of massive bound cores supported by turbulence. We trace the evolution of the p-cores forward in time, and investigate the connection between the original p-core mass and the stellar mass that formed from it. We find that there is a poor correlation, with considerable scatter suggesting accretion on to the core is dependent on more factors than just the initial core mass. During the accretion process the p-cores accrete from beyond the region first bound, highlighting the importance of the core environment to its subsequent evolution.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Uncontrolled Keywords:	stars: formation; stars: luminosity functions, mass function; ISM: clouds; ISM: structure
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0035-8711
Last Modified:	25 Oct 2022 09:44
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/59842

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