巨分子云的寿命

巨分子云的碰撞造成了大质量恒星在碰撞分子云中的形成,这些大质量恒星的形成产生了膨胀的HII区域,从而使巨分于云碎裂成小质量的分子云。这是本文提出的巨分子云碎裂机制。因此巨分子云的寿命也主要由区分子云间的碰撞几率所决定。我们的分析表明,巨分子云的寿命有赖于巨分子云所在的旋涡星系中的不同位置。寿命的最大可能存在区间为8.18×10~7yr与2.45×10~8yr。利用我们提出的机制可以在分子云研究的数值计算与数值模拟中得到应用。     

Large-Scale Instability in Giant Molecular Clouds

Appearance of the large-scale instability in the magnetized slightly-ionized gas in the Giant Molecular Clouds is discussed. Cloud gas is characterized by the fully developed small-scale magnetohydrodynamic helical turbulence. The instability analysis shows that the large-scale eddy coherent structures may be generated in the Giant Molecular Clouds. Characteristic scale of these structures is determined by the value of the hydrodynamic helicity as well as joint influence of the drag force and magnetic helicity. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Cosmic Ray-Induced Polycondensate Hydrocarbons in Giant Molecular Clouds

Astrophysical and cosmochemical data show that many kinds of hydrocarbons are widespread in space, including giant molecular clouds, diffuse interstellar medium, comets, interplanetary dust particles, and carbonaceous meteorites. Here an effort is made to show the close relation between high-molecular weight hydrocarbons observed in space and existing on Earth. Results of astrochemical modelling of dust grains in dense collapsing cores of giant molecular clouds are also presented. They show that about 10% of the total abundance of dust grains may be the result of aliphatic hydrocarbons. This dust serves as initial material for comets, formed in protosolar nebula. The problem of survival of cometary organics during impact onto the Earth is discussed, and it is shown that the so-called soft-landing comet hypothesis may explain the accumulation of complex hydrocarbons on the Earth's surface. We conclude that a significant fraction of terrestrial prebiotic petroleum was delivered by extraterrestrial matter.     

星系中巨分子云的形成与演化

星系中的巨分子云(GMCs)是恒星形成的主要区域,因此它的形成和演化对于星系的演化是至关重要的。本文中将介绍分子云的基本特性、分子云之间的碰撞和巨分子云的形成、碎裂和寿命以及其他环境因素,如旋臂扰动、较差自转等在巨分子云的形成和演化中的作用。同时也探讨在采用数值模拟研究巨分子云演化时所取分子云数目的影响。     

巨分子云的聚合形成与旋臂结构

本文分析了在巨分子云聚合形成机制下旋臂扰动的影响 .结果表明 ,在巨分子云聚合形成过程中 ,当不考虑恒星形成引起的巨分子云的碎裂时 ,旋臂的存在使分子云在绕星系中心作自转运动时 ,在旋臂区域分子云的密度大大增加而使较多的大质量分子云由于碰撞而形成 ,特别能促使一些质量更大的巨分子云形成 .但当这些聚合形成的大质量分子云走出旋臂区域进入臂间区域时 ,它们又会自动瓦解 .因此在整个星系盘上 ,与没有旋臂扰动情况相比 ,F(M )∝logM的曲线只是相应地往上有一平移 ,而对形成的中间质量的巨分子云的数量基本没有影响     

Formation of a Fractal Structure of Giant Molecular Clouds in the Galaxy

Observations show that molecular clouds in the interstellar medium are fractals with a dimensionality close to 2.35. A model for the formation of clouds from cloudlets ejected from stars is examined in this paper. It is shown that the motion of cloudlets in the interstellar medium is described by a model of generalized brownian motion, so that the resulting clouds should have a fractal structure. We examine the hypothesis that the fractal dimensionality of a cloud is completely determined by the way the mass of the cloudlets varies. The generalized brownian motion of an ensemble of particles is described as a random process with a time dependent parameter. The relationship among the growth of the cloudlet mass, the properties of the process by which the cloudlets move, and the fractal dimensionality of the structures resulting from this process is examined. It is shown that the fractal dimensionality of the formed clouds corresponds to the natural aggregation of mass assuming random cloudlet collisions.     

Is the Parker Instability a Viable Mechanism for the Formation of Giant Molecular Clouds?

The stratified interstellar medium has been known to be subject to the Parker instability, and the instability has been considered as a plausible mechanism for the formation of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). By presenting our recent efforts to understand the instability through linear analyses and numerical simulations, we raise a negative point of view that the Parker instability alone could not form GMCs.     

The Role of Giant Molecular Clouds in the Evolution of the Oort Comet Cloud

We estimated the gravitational influence of giant molecular clouds passing near the Solar system on the orbital evolution of Oort cloud comets. We performed a comparative analysis of the accuracies of the following two methods of allowance for the perturbations from giant molecular clouds: the impulse approximation and numerical integration. The impulse approximation yields fairly accurate estimates of the change in the energy of Oort cloud comets and the probability of their ejection under the influence of a molecular cloud if the path of the Solar system does not cross its boundary and if the molecular cloud may be treated as a point perturbing mass. The comet survival probability in the Oort cloud depends significantly on the internal structure of the perturbing molecular cloud and the impact parameter of the encounter. The most massive injection of comets into the planetary region and their ejection from the Oort cloud take place if the Solar system passes through a giant molecular cloud composed of several high-mass condensations. In this case, most of the comets injected into the planetary region were initially comets of the inner Oort cloud (a 10^–4 AU) with high orbital eccentricities.     

Structure of Molecular Clouds

This review, far from exhaustive, focuses on the specific properties of molecular clouds in their least condensed phase. Emphasis is placed on their connection with the diffuse medium, their multi-fractal characteristics and the diversity of their small-scale structure, where cold and dense gas may coexist with dilute and warm gas. Stuctures of essentially pure velocity origin are uncovered and seen as a possible signature of the intermittency of turbulence dissipation.     

Molecular Clouds Toward a New OB Association in Pup-CMa

We have mapped 16 molecular clouds toward a new OB association in the Pup-CMa region to derive their physical properties. The observations were carried out in the ¹²CO (J = 1 – 0) line with the Southern millimetre-wave Telescope at Cerro Tololo, Chile. Distances have been determined kinematically using the rotation curve of Brand with R_⊙ = 8.5 kpc and V_⊙ = 220 km/s. Masses have been derived adopting a CO luminosity to H₂ conversion factor X = 3.8 . 10²⁰ molecules cm^-2 (K km/s)^-1. The observed mean radial velocity of the clouds is comparable with the mean radial velocity of stars composing an OB association in Pup-CMa; it is in favor of the close connection of clouds with these stars. __________ Published in Astrofizika, Vol. 48, No. 4, pp. 491–501 (October–December, 2005).     

Molecular Clouds: Formation and Disruption

Molecular clouds (MC) are the densest and coldestcomponent of the interstellar gas, and the sites of starformation. They are also turbulent and fractaland theirmasses and sizes span several orders of magnitude. It is also generally believed that they are close to Virial equilibrium (VE).Since this statement has beenquestioned by a number of authors, with important implicationson molecular clouds’ lifetimes, we will review this subjectwithin the context of a turbulent ISM. In this framework, there issignificant numerical evidence that MCs are not in VE, that there is a strong exchange of mass, momentum and energy between clouds and their surrounding medium, andthat it is difficult (if not impossible) to form quasistatic coresinside MCs, suggesting that they must be transient, short-livedphenomena. Thus, their formation and disruption must be primarily dynamical, and probably not due tojust a single mechanism, but rather to the combination of severalprocesses. This picture seems consistent withrecent estimates of ages of stars in the solar neighborhood.     

Dynamical Molecular Regions in Interstellar Clouds

Work on three problems concerning the chemistry and dynamics of star forming fregions is addressed. Most of the work was done in collaboration with David A. Williams. A chemical model of core D ofTMC-1 is described; it is consistent with that dense core having evolved to its present physical state in the last 10⁵years. Slow-mode wave excitation by the nonlinear evolution of fast-mode waves is examined as a possible mechanism for the production of structures, including densecores, in molecular sources. Sufficient atomic hydrogen may be present at the births of some dense cores that the radiative association of O with H is important in the initiation of the gas phase chemistry. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Plasma and Magnetic Field Inside Magnetic Clouds: a Global Study

Data observed during spacecraft encounters with magnetic clouds have been extensively analyzed in the literature. Moreover, several models have been proposed for the magnetic topology of these events, and fitted to the observations. Although these interplanetary events present well-defined plasma features, none of those models have included a simultaneous analysis of magnetic field and plasma data. Using as a starting point a non-force-free model that we have developed previously, we present a global study of MCs that include both the magnetic field topology and the plasma pressure. In this paper we obtain the governing equations for both magnitudes inside a MC. The expressions deduced are fitted simultaneously to the measurements of plasma pressure and magnetic field vector. We perform an analysis of magnetic field and plasma WIND observations within several MCs from 1995 to 1998. The analysis is confined to four of these events that have high-quality data. Only in one fitting procedure we obtain the orientation of the magnetic cloud relative to the ecliptic plane and the current density of the plasma inside the cloud. We find that the equations proposed reproduce the experimental data quite well.     

Scaling Relations of Supersonic Turbulence in Molecular Clouds

We discuss a model for driven supersonic, super-Alfvénic MHD turbulence that is believed to govern the structure of molecular clouds. Such turbulence is highly intermittent; we describe its statistical properties by obtaining scaling of velocity-difference structure functions. This scaling was analytically predicted in Boldyrev (2002), confirmed in numerical simulations by Boldyrev et al. (2002), and discovered in observations by Padoan et al. (2003).     

分子云磁场与尘埃导致的偏振

磁场对分子云及其中的恒星的形成和演化起到重要的作用.分子云磁场的探测方法主要是谱线塞曼效应、尘埃热辐射的偏振,以及谱线的线偏振观测.利用谱线的塞曼效应可以直接测量视线方向的磁场强度.尘埃热辐射偏振可以有效地示踪磁场方向在天球上的分布.分子云内部的磁场会受到不同物理过程的影响.高分辨率观测可以研究磁场扰动的细节,低分辨率观测可以得到分子云甚至银河系大尺度磁场的宏观信息.只有多波段的观测才能全面地认识分子云磁场与各种物理过程的联系.该文对分子云尘埃热辐射偏振的观测情况做了调研,总结了分子云大尺度磁场的研究现状和发展前景.     

不同演化阶段的分子云与恒星形成的研究

利用Ｍａｓａｃｈｕｓｅｔｓ－ＳｔｏｎｙＢｒｏｏｋ的１２ＣＯ的分辨率为４７″的银道面巡天和ＩＲＡＳ的分辨率为１５′的红外巡天图像资料,系统地进行了ｌ＝８°～３８°,ｂ＝－１°～＋１°天区内不同分子云演化阶段与恒星形成过程的对比研究．将上述天区划分成３０个小区,通过图像处理,得到了每个小区的ＣＯ（１－０）和波长６０μｍ上远红外发射的空间分布,计算出相应天区的分子云复合体的红外色温度和光深分布,结合ＩＲＡＳ红外点源和ＨＩＩ区星表,把分子云从年轻到年老的演化阶段分成四大类,分析了它们的主要特征以及与恒星形成过程的关系．文章最后对超致密ＨＩＩ区和原恒星候选体沿银经的分布,以及ＨＩＩ区和原恒星候选体与分子云成协的比例进行了统计研究,再次说明在银河系中恒星形成活动仍在不断地发生和进行．     

Velocities of Magneto-Elastic and Magneto-Electron Waves in Dark Molecular Clouds

We present analytic and numerical estimates for group velocity of wave motions in two models of cold interstellar medium presumably constituting the interior of cores of magnetically supported dark molecular clouds. Namely, in the model of gas-based ferrocolloidal soft matter and in the model of noncompensated electron magnetoplasma. The predictions of these models are given in juxtaposition with data on recent Zeeman measurements of the molecular linewidths detected from dark central regions of star-forming interstellar clouds.     

Toward Understanding the Formation of Molecular Clouds

Based on a comparison of similar colour indices we investigate the effects of luminosity and metallicity that influence the Strömgren and Vilnius photometric quantities for different spectral types. We notice significant differences for similar indices, apparently due to small deviations of central wavelengths and band-widths of the filters. For the G-K type stars of moderate luminosity we interpret the difference introduced by v and X pass-bands as an log g effect, reflecting the presence of H&;K Ca II stellar lines in these spectral types. We discuss a possible influence of the H&;K Ca II lines on the luminosities derived from the Vilnius classification diagrams.     

Multi-Scale Analysis of Magnetic Fields in Filamentary Molecular Clouds

Using polarimetry, at both visible and submillimeter wavelengths, we propose to study the role and to compare the structure of the magnetic fields within and near filamentary molecular clouds. The optical polarization data obtained at Mont Mégantic and from the Heiles catalog constrain the large scale topology of magnetic fields in the near environment of the clouds. Submillimeter data probe the structure of the field at smaller scale within the clouds. The aim of this research is to put constraints on the way the magnetic field threading the filaments connects to larger structures in the ISM. This should help to illuminate the large scale topology of the field, which is crucial to understanding the formation of filaments and the role of magnetic fields within these structures. Two different regions have been selected for this project, OMC where star formation actively occurs and CL04/CL21 which is a cold molecular filament in the earliest stages of stellar formation.     

Ionization and Cooling of a Hot Plasma with Temperature Fluctuations

Cooling functions for a stationary plasma are calculated in a wide temperature range from 5·10³ K to 10⁸ K, both for a plasma with the solar abundances of elements and for a plasma with an anomalous chemical composition typical of Wolf—Rayet stars. The HILYS project is described, with the aim of calculating cross sections and rates of excitation by electron collision of atoms and ions with a charge Z 26 and principal electron quantum numbers n 10, needed to calculate the ionization and thermal states of a plasma and the development of methods of calculating the plasma's spectrum in the visible, UV, and x-ray ranges. The results of a calculation of cross sections and effective collision strengths obtained within the framework of the project are given. The influence of temperature fluctuations (T/T 0.16) on the relative ion abundances and the total cooling function is studied. It is shown that the presence of such fluctuations considerably increases the temperature range in which the abundances of ions of a given degree of ionization are not negligible, while the cooling function can differ considerably from that calculated for a one-temperature plasma. The contribution of dielectronic recombination to the total cooling function is investigated, and it proves to be significant only for a plasma with high abundances of heavy elements. The x-ray spectrum of the bright supergiant Pup is analyzed.