Peculiarities in the Formation of Molecular Clouds in the Central Regions of Spiral Galaxies

The limitations imposed by the shear instability on the formation of gigantic molecular clouds in the central regions of spiral galaxies are examined. The criteria obtained here are illustrated using the example of six galaxies for which the detailed rotation curves are known. The different mechanisms for formation of molecular clouds which apply in the central and edge regions of disk galaxies are evaluated.     

Supernova remnants and the spiral structure of the Galaxy

A set of unit clouds of 10⁴ M randomly distributed between 3 and 7 kpc radii, move under the general gravitation of the galactic disk and their mutual gravitation. When the clouds collide they form loose aggregates or giant molecular clouds (GMC). Star formation rate is assumed to be proportional to the mass of the GMC. The more massive stars formed soon turn into supernovae, which in turn break up the GMC back into the unit clouds. After some 350 Myr a steady state is reached, in which the GMCs have a mass spectrum of gradient −1.6, and has the mass-radius relation M ∞ R², both in agreement with the observations. From our simulation we find there should be 775 ± 12 supernova remnants in our galaxy. The existence of spiral arms does not increase the production rate of supernova remnants, but it does make the GMCs to concentrate around them.     

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.     

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.     

Photoionized Regions Around Supernova Remnants

The radiation produced by the gas cooling behind a fast supernova remnant shock in the interstellar medium is capable of ionizing the undisturbed medium ahead of the shock wave. In this work I investigate the nonequilibrium evolution of these photoionized precursor regions by means of radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of supernova remnant evolution. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

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.     

On the manifestation of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in an inhomogeneous interstellar medium with radiative cooling

We numerically simulate the evolution of the plane two-dimensional deformations of a contact discontinuity that is impulsively accelerated by a shock wave. We take into account the effects of radiative cooling and perturbation scale lengths on the dynamics and shape of the forming density inhomogeneities. For moderately intense shocks in a stellar wind and for strong shocks from a supernova, we show that the radiative cooling processes do not affect significantly the growth rate of the initial perturbations and the total mass of the forming condensations. However, the density of the matter compressed by the transmitted shock wave increases dramatically. At the same time, the contribution from long-wavelength perturbations to the deformation of the contact surface decreases significantly. In the case of shock propagation from a supernova, the initial conditions have been found to be a factor that can affect the morphology of the shocked interstellar medium.     

Dynamical feedback of self-generated magnetic fields in cosmic ray modified shocks

We present a semi-analytical kinetic calculation of the process of non-linear diffusive shock acceleration (NLDSA) which includes the magnetic field amplification due to cosmic ray induced streaming instability, the dynamical reaction of the amplified magnetic field and the possible effects of turbulent heating. The approach is specialized to parallel shock waves, and the parameters we chose are the ones appropriate to forward shocks in supernova remnants. Our calculation allows us to show that the net effect of the amplified magnetic field is to enhance the maximum momentum of accelerated particles while reducing the concavity of the spectra, with respect to the standard predictions of NLDSA. This is mainly due to the dynamical reaction of the amplified field on the shock, which notably reduces the modification of the shock precursor. The total compression factors which are obtained for parameters typical of supernova remnants are   R _tot∼ 7–10  , in good agreement with the values inferred from observations. The strength of the magnetic field produced through excitation of streaming instability is found in good agreement with the values inferred for several remnants if the thickness of the X-ray rims is interpreted as due to severe synchrotron losses of high-energy electrons. We also discuss the relative role of turbulent heating and magnetic dynamical reaction in driving the reduction of the precursor modification.     

A hydrodynamic model for asymmetric weak explosion of collapsing supernovae with rapid initial rotation

We further investigate the two-dimensional hydrodynamic explosion model for rapidly rotating and collapsing supernovae (Aksenov et al. 1997), in which the initial energy release inside a fragmenting low-mass neutron star of critical mass ≈0.1M _⊙ moving in a circular orbit at a velocity of ≈18000 km s^?1 is reduced considerably. This velocity closely corresponds to a pulsar escape velocity of ≈1000 km s^?1 (at a total mass of ≈1.9M _⊙ for the binary of neutron stars). Compared to our previous study (Zabrodina and Imshennik 1999), this energy release was reduced by more than a half. Otherwise, the model in question does not differ from the explosion model with a self-consistent chemical composition of nuclides investigated in the above paper. In particular, the initial energy release was carefully reconciled with a chemical composition. Our numerical solution shows that the reduction in energy release due to the time scales of β processes and neutrino energy losses being finite does not alter the qualitative results of our previous studies (Aksenov et al. 1997; Imshennik and Zabrodina 1999). An intense undamped diverging shock wave (with a total post-shock energy ? 10⁵¹ erg at a front radius of ≈10 000 km) is formed; a large asymmetry of explosion with a narrow cone (with a solid angle of ≈π/4) around the leading direction, which coincides with the velocity direction of the low-mass neutron star at the instant of its explosive fragmentation in the two-dimensional model, emerges. A jet of synthesized radioactive nickel, whose mass is estimated by using simple threshold criteria to be M _Ni≈(0.02?0.03)M _⊙ is concentrated inside this cone. This appears to be the integrated parameter that is most sensitive to the specified reduction in initial energy release; it is also reduced by almost a half compared to our previous estimate (Imshennik and Zabrodina 1999). The time of propagation of the shock wave inferred in our model to the presupernova surface was estimated for SN 1987A to be 0.5–1.0 h, in agreement with observations.     

Cosmic Ray Acceleration Inside Molecular Clouds

Acceleration of charged particles by neutral gas turbulence in giant molecular clouds is considered. The gamma-ray emission from these clouds is estimated. It is shown that molecular clouds can be the counterparts of some of unidentified sources.     

Supersonic steady accretion of a rotating cold “Iron Gas” onto a neutron star after gravitational collapse

We analytically generalize the well-known solution of steady supersonic spherically symmetric gas accretion onto a star (Bondi 1952) for an iron atmosphere with completely degenerate electrons with an arbitrary degree of relativity. This solution is used for typical physical conditions in the vicinity of protoneutron stars produced by gravitational collapse with masses M ₀=(1.4?1.8)M _⊙ and over a wide range of nonzero “iron gas” densities at infinity, ρ_∞=(10⁴?5×10⁶)g cm^?3. Under these conditions, we determine all accretion parameters, including the accretion rate, whose value is ～(10?50)M _⊙s^?1 at M ₀=1.8M _⊙ (it is a factor of 1.7 lower for M ₀=1.4M _⊙, because the accretion rate is exactly ∝M ₀ ² ). We take into account the effect of accreting-gas rotation in a quasi-one-dimensional approximation, which has generally proved to be marginal with respect to the accretion rate.     

A self-similar solution for spherically symmetric gravitational collapse

A model of gas-dynamical flow during gravitational collapse is analyzed mathematically by assuming its spherical symmetry and self-similarity. A shock wave diverging from the center emerges in this model. The physical requirements imposed on the post-shock flow at the center for the specified parameters at infinity unambiguously determine the shock front and the flow behind it.     

TeV γ-rays from old supernova remnants

We study the emission from an old supernova remnant (SNR) with an age of around 10⁵ yr and that from a giant molecular cloud (GMC) encountered by the SNR. When the SNR age is around 10⁵ yr, proton acceleration is efficient enough to emit TeV γ-rays both at the shock of the SNR and that in the GMC. The maximum energy of primarily accelerated electrons is so small that TeV γ-rays and X-rays are dominated by hadronic processes,  π⁰  -decay and synchrotron radiation from secondary electrons, respectively. However, if the SNR is older than several 10⁵ yr, there are few high-energy particles emitting TeV γ-rays because of the energy-loss effect and/or the wave-damping effect occurring at low-velocity isothermal shocks. For old SNRs or SNR–GMC interacting systems capable of generating TeV γ-ray emitting particles, we calculated the ratio of TeV γ-ray (1–10 TeV) to X-ray (2–10 keV) energy flux and found that it can be more than  ∼10²  . Such a source showing large flux ratio may be a possible origin of recently discovered unidentified TeV sources.     

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).     

刚体自转在巨分子云的聚合形成中的作用

分析在聚合形成机制下,巨分子云在刚体自转盘中的形成过程．研究结果表明,形成的巨分子云主要由其附近的分子云组成．由于速度弥散的作用,非弹性碰撞和自引力使分子云聚会在一起,以这种方式形成的巨分子云是小质量的．如果较差自转存在,这些小质量的巨分子云便有更多的机会聚合在一起形成更大质量的巨分子云．这进一步说明,较差自转在巨分子云的形成中起了很大的积极作用．     

Two Models of Magnetic Support for Photoevaporated Molecular Clouds

The thermal pressure inside molecular clouds is insufficient for maintaining the pressure balance at an ablation front at the cloud surface illuminated by nearby UV stars. Most probably, the required stiffness is provided by the magnetic pressure. After surveying existing models of this type, we concentrate on two of them: the model of a quasi-homogeneous magnetic field and the recently proposed model of a “magnetostatic turbulence”. We discuss observational consequences of the two models, in particular, the structure and the strength of the magnetic field inside the cloud and in the ionized outflow. We comment on the possible role of reconnection events and their observational signatures. We mention laboratory experiments where the most significant features of the models can be tested.