Hydrodynamical simulations of Galactic fountains – I. Evolution of single fountains

The ejection of the gas out of the disc in late-type galaxies is related to star formation and is due mainly to Type II supernovae. In this paper, we studied in detail the development of the Galactic fountains in order to understand their dynamical evolution and their influence on the redistribution of the freshly delivered metals over the disc. To this aim, we performed a number of 3D hydrodynamical radiative cooling simulations of the gas in the Milky Way where the whole Galaxy structure, the Galactic differential rotation and the supernova explosions generated by a single OB association are considered. A typical fountain powered by 100 Type II supernovae may eject material up to ∼2 kpc which than collapses back mostly in the form of dense, cold clouds and filaments. The majority of the gas lifted up by the fountains falls back on the disc remaining within a radial distance  Δ R = 0.5 kpc  from the place where the fountain originated. This localized circulation of disc gas does not influence the radial chemical gradients on large scale, as required by the chemical models of the Milky Way which reproduce the metallicity distribution without invoking large fluxes of metals. Simulations of multiple fountains fuelled by Type II supernovae of different OB associations will be presented in a companion paper.     

Simulations of spiral galaxies with an active potential: molecular cloud formation and gas dynamics

We describe simulations of the response of a gaseous disc to an active spiral potential. The potential is derived from an N -body calculation and leads to a multi-armed time-evolving pattern. The gas forms long spiral arms typical of grand-design galaxies, although the spiral pattern is asymmetric. The primary difference from a grand-design spiral galaxy, which has a consistent two-/four-armed pattern, is that instead of passing through the spiral arms, gas generally falls into a developing potential minimum and is released only when the local minimum dissolves. In this case, the densest gas is coincident with the spiral potential, rather than offset as in the grand-design spirals. We would therefore expect no offset between the spiral shock and star formation, and no obvious corotation radius. Spurs which occur in grand-design spirals when large clumps are sheared off leaving the spiral arms, are rare in the active, time-evolving spiral reported here. Instead, large branches are formed from spiral arms when the underlying spiral potential is dissolving due to the N -body dynamics. We find that the molecular cloud mass spectrum for the active potential is similar to that for clouds in grand-design calculations, depending primarily on the ambient pressure rather than the nature of the potential. The largest molecular clouds occur when spiral arms collide, rather than by agglomeration within a spiral arm.     

High-resolution simulations of clump–clump collisions using SPH with particle splitting

We investigate, by means of numerical simulations, the phenomenology of star formation triggered by low-velocity collisions between low-mass molecular clumps. The simulations are performed using a smoothed particle hydrodynamics code which satisfies the Jeans condition by invoking on-the-fly particle splitting.
Clumps are modelled as stable truncated (non-singular) isothermal, i.e. Bonnor–Ebert, spheres. Collisions are characterized by M ₀ (clump mass), b (offset parameter, i.e. ratio of impact parameter to clump radius) and     (Mach number, i.e. ratio of collision velocity to effective post-shock sound speed). The gas subscribes to a barotropic equation of state, which is intended to capture (i) the scaling of pre-collision internal velocity dispersion with clump mass, (ii) post-shock radiative cooling and (iii) adiabatic heating in optically thick protostellar fragments.
The efficiency of star formation is found to vary between 10 and 30 per cent in the different collisions studied and it appears to increase with decreasing M ₀, and/or decreasing b , and/or increasing     . For   b < 0.5  collisions produce shock-compressed layers which fragment into filaments. Protostellar objects then condense out of the filaments and accrete from them. The resulting accretion rates are high,     , for the first     . The densities in the filaments,     , are sufficient that they could be mapped in NH₃ or CS line radiation, in nearby star formation regions.     

Three-dimensional simulations of molecular cloud fragmentation regulated by magnetic fields and ambipolar diffusion

We employ the first fully three-dimensional simulation to study the role of magnetic fields and ion–neutral friction in regulating gravitationally driven fragmentation of molecular clouds. The cores in an initially subcritical cloud develop gradually over an ambipolar diffusion time while the cores in an initially supercritical cloud develop in a dynamical time. The infalling speeds on to cores are subsonic in the case of an initially subcritical cloud, while an extended (≳0.1 pc) region of supersonic infall exists in the case of an initially supercritical cloud. These results are consistent with previous two-dimensional simulations. We also found that a snapshot of the relation between density (ρ) and the strength of the magnetic field ( B ) at different spatial points of the cloud coincides with the evolutionary track of an individual core. When the density becomes large, both the relations tend to   B ∝ρ^0.5  .     

Star formation and chemical evolution in smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations: a statistical approach

In smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) codes with a large number of particles, star formation as well as gas and metal restitution from dying stars can be treated statistically. This approach allows one to include detailed chemical evolution and gas re-ejection with minor computational effort. Here we report on a new statistical algorithm for star formation and chemical evolution, especially conceived for SPH simulations with large numbers of particles, and for parallel SPH codes.
For the sake of illustration, we also present two astrophysical simulations obtained with this algorithm, implemented into the Tree-SPH code by Lia & Carraro .
In the first simulation, we follow the formation of an individual disc-like galaxy, predict the final structure and metallicity evolution, and test resolution effects. In the second simulation we simulate the formation and evolution of a cluster of galaxies, to demonstrate the capabilities of the algorithm in investigating the chemo-dynamical evolution of galaxies and of the intergalactic medium in a cosmological context.     

Observational characteristics of dense cores with deeply embedded young protostars

Class 0 objects, which are thought to be the youngest protostars, are identified in terms of NIR or radio emission and/or the presence of molecular outflows. We present combined hydrodynamic and radiative transfer simulations of the collapse of a star‐forming molecular core, which suggest two criteria for identifying dense cores with deeply embedded very young protostars that may not be observable in the NIR or radio with current telescopes. We find that cores with protostars are relatively warm (T > 15 K) with their SEDs peaking at wavelengths <170 µm, and they tend to appear circular. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Dense and diffuse gas in dynamically active clouds

We investigate the chemical and observational implications of repetitive transient dense core formation in molecular clouds. We allow a transient density fluctuation to form and disperse over a period of 1 Myr, tracing its chemical evolution. We then allow the same gas immediately to undergo further such formation and dispersion cycles. The chemistry of the dense gas in subsequent cycles is similar to that of the first, and a limit cycle is reached quickly (2–3 cycles). Enhancement of hydrocarbon abundances during a specific period of evolution is the strongest indicator of previous dynamical history. The molecular content of the diffuse background gas in the molecular cloud is expected to be strongly enhanced by the core formation and dispersion process. Such enhancement may remain for as long as 0.5 Myr. The frequency of repetitive core formation should strongly determine the level of background molecular enhancement.
We also convolve the emission from a synthesized dark cloud, comprised of ensembles of transient dense cores. We find that the dynamical history of the gas, and therefore the chemical state of the diffuse intercore medium, may be determined if a sufficient sample of cores is present in an ensemble. Molecular ratios of key hydrocarbons with SO and SO₂ are crucial to this distinction. Only surveys with great enough angular resolution to resolve individual cores, or very small groupings, are expected to show evidence of repetitive dynamical processing. The existence of non-equilibrium chemistry in the diffuse background may have implications for the initial conditions used in chemical models. Observed variations in the chemistries of diffuse and translucent regions may be explained by lines of sight which intersect a number of molecular cloud cores in various stages of evolution.     

The star-forming content of the W3 giant molecular cloud

We have surveyed a ∼0.9 square degree area of the W3 giant molecular cloud (GMC) and star-forming region in the 850-μm continuum, using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. A complete sample of 316 dense clumps were detected with a mass range from around 13 to  2500 M_⊙  . Part of the W3 GMC is subject to an interaction with the H  ii region and fast stellar winds generated by the nearby W4 OB association. We find that the fraction of total gas mass in dense, 850-μm traced structures is significantly altered by this interaction, being around 5–13 per cent in the undisturbed cloud but ∼25–37 per cent in the feedback-affected region. The mass distribution in the detected clump sample depends somewhat on assumptions of dust temperature and is not a simple, single power law but contains significant structure at intermediate masses. This structure is likely to be due to crowding of sources near or below the spatial resolution of the observations. There is little evidence of any difference between the index of the high-mass end of the clump mass function in the compressed region and in the unaffected cloud. The consequences of these results are discussed in terms of current models of triggered star formation.     

Formation of accretion centers in simulations of colliding uniform density H2 cores

We test here the first stage of a route of modifications to be applied to the public GADGET2 code for dynamically identifying accretion centers during the collision process of two adjacent and identical gas cores. Each colliding core has a uniform density profile and rigid body rotation; its mass and size have been chosen to represent the observed core L1544; for the thermal and rotational energy ratios with respect to the potential energy, we assume the values α = 0.3 and β = 0.1, respectively. These values favor the gravitational collapse of the core. We here study cases of both head‐on and off‐center collisions, in which the pre‐collision velocity increases the initial sound speed of the barotropic gas by up to several times. In a simulation the accretion centers are formed by the highest density particles, so we here report their location and properties in order to realize the collision effects on the collapsing and colliding cores. In one of the models, we observe a roughly spherical distribution of accretion centers located at the front wave of the collision. In a forthcoming publication we will apply the full modified GADGET code to study the collision of turbulent cores. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Molecular line mapping of the giant molecular cloud associated with RCW 106 – II. Column density and dynamical state of the clumps

We present a fully sampled C¹⁸O (1–0) map towards the southern giant molecular cloud (GMC) associated with the H  ii region RCW 106, and use it in combination with previous ¹³CO (1–0) mapping to estimate the gas column density as a function of position and velocity. We find localized regions of significant ¹³CO optical depth in the northern part of the cloud, with several of the high-opacity clouds in this region likely associated with a limb-brightened shell around the H  ii region G333.6−0.2. Optical depth corrections broaden the distribution of column densities in the cloud, yielding a lognormal distribution as predicted by simulations of turbulence. Decomposing the ¹³CO and C¹⁸O data cubes into clumps, we find relatively weak correlations between size and linewidth, and a more sensitive dependence of luminosity on size than would be predicted by a constant average column density. The clump mass spectrum has a slope near −1.7, consistent with previous studies. The most massive clumps appear to have gravitational binding energies well in excess of virial equilibrium; we discuss possible explanations, which include magnetic support and neglect of time-varying surface terms in the virial theorem. Unlike molecular clouds as a whole, the clumps within the RCW 106 GMC, while elongated, appear to show random orientations with respect to the Galactic plane.