2017/10/06 by Kazuhiro Shima, Elizabeth J. Tasker, Elizabeth J Tasker +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Acceleration #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Collision #Dust and Plasma Wave Phenomena #Molecular cloud #Optical properties and cooling technologies in crystalline materials #Shock (circulatory) #Shock wave #Star formation #Stars #Stellar evolution #Thermal #Turbulence #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/pasj/psx124
19 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in PASJ
arxiv created 2017/10/06 · openalex publication_date 2017/10/13 · arxiv updated 2017/10/16 · openalex created_date 2017/10/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract We investigate star formation occurring in idealized giant molecular clouds, comparing structures that evolve in isolation versus those undergoing a collision. Two different collision speeds are investigated and the impact of photoionizing radiation from the stars is determined. We find that a colliding system leads to more massive star formation both with and without the addition of feedback, raising overall star formation efficiencies (SFE) by a factor of 10 and steepening the high-mass end of the stellar mass function. This rise in SFE is due to increased turbulent compression during the cloud collision. While feedback can both promote and hinder star formation in an isolated system, it increases the SFE by approximately 1.5 times in the colliding case when the thermal speed of the resulting H ii regions matches the shock propagation speed in the collision.