Engineering topics

Ballesteros-Paredes, Javier

Publications and source records attributed to Ballesteros-Paredes, Javier.

6 records

DOE OSTI2017

Magnetized Converging Flows toward the Hot Core in the Intermediate/High-mass Star-forming Region NGC 6334 V

We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations at 345 GHz toward the intermediate/high-mass cluster-forming region NGC 6334 V. From the dust emission we spatially resolve three dense condensations, the brightest one presenting the typical chemistry of a hot core. The magnetic field (derived from the dust polarized emission) shows a bimodal converging pattern toward the hot core. The molecular emission traces two filamentary structures at two different velocities, separated by 2 km s{sup −1}, converging to the hot core and following the magnetic field distribution. We compare the velocity field and the magnetic field derived from the SMA observations with magnetohydrodynamic simulations of star-forming regions dominated by gravity. This comparison allows us to show how the gas falls in from the larger-scale extended dense core (∼0.1 pc) of NGC 6334 V toward the higher-density hot core region (∼0.02 pc) through two distinctive converging flows dragging the magnetic field, whose strength seems to have been overcome by gravity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Energy budget of forming clumps in numerical simulations of collapsing clouds

We analyze the physical properties and energy balance of density enhancements in two SPH simulations of the formation, evolution, and collapse of giant molecular clouds. In the simulations, no feedback is included, so all motions are due either to the initial decaying turbulence or to gravitational contraction. We define clumps as connected regions above a series of density thresholds. The resulting full set of clumps follows the generalized energy equipartition relation, σ{sub v}/R{sup 1/2}∝Σ{sup 1/2}, where σ{sub v} is the velocity dispersion, R is the “radius,” and Σ is the column density. We interpret this as a natural consequence of gravitational contraction at all scales rather than virial equilibrium. Nevertheless, clumps with low Σ tend to show a large scatter around equipartition. In more than half of the cases, this scatter is dominated by external turbulent compressions that assemble the clumps rather than by small-scale random motions that would disperse them. The other half does actually disperse. Moreover, clump sub-samples selected by means of different criteria exhibit different scalings. Sub-samples with narrow Σ ranges follow Larson-like relations, although characterized by their respective values of Σ. Finally, we find that (i) clumps lying in filaments tend to appear sub-virial, (ii) high-density cores (n⩾10{sup 5} cm{sup 3}) that exhibit moderate kinetic energy excesses often contain sink (“stellar”) particles and the excess disappears when the stellar mass is taken into account in the energy balance, and (iii) cores with kinetic energy excess but no stellar particles are truly in a state of dispersal.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2016

A Herschel view of protoplanetary disks in the σ Ori cluster

We present new Herschel observations using the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer of 32 T Tauri stars in the young (∼3 Myr) σ Ori cluster. Most of our objects are K and M stars with large excesses at 24 μm. We used irradiated accretion disk models of D’Alessio et al. to compare their spectral energy distributions with our observational data. We arrive at the following six conclusions. (i) The observed disks are consistent with irradiated accretion disk systems. (ii) Most of our objects (60%) can be explained by significant dust depletion from the upper disk layers. (iii) Similarly, 61% of our objects can be modeled with large disk sizes (R {sub d} ≥ 100 au). (iv) The masses of our disks range between 0.03 and 39 M {sub Jup}, where 35% of our objects have disk masses less than 1 M {sub Jup}. Although these are lower limits, high-mass (>0.05 M{sub ⊙}) disks, which are present in, e.g., Taurus, are missing. (v) By assuming a uniform distribution of objects around the brightest stars at the center of the cluster, we found that 80% of our disks are exposed to external FUV radiation of 300⩽G{sub 0}⩽1000, which can be strong enough to photoevaporate the outer edges of the closer disks. (vi) Within 0.6 pc from σ Ori we found forbidden emission lines of [N ii] in the spectrum of one of our large disks (SO662), but no emission in any of our small ones. This suggests that this object may be an example of a photoevaporating disk.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2015

SIGNATURES OF STAR CLUSTER FORMATION BY COLD COLLAPSE

Subvirial gravitational collapse is one mechanism by which star clusters may form. Here we investigate whether this mechanism can be inferred from observations of young clusters. To address this question, we have computed smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of the initial formation and evolution of a dynamically young star cluster through cold (subvirial) collapse, starting with an ellipsoidal, turbulently seeded distribution of gas, and forming sink particles representing (proto)stars. While the initial density distributions of the clouds do not have large initial mass concentrations, gravitational focusing due to the global morphology leads to cluster formation. We use the resulting structures to extract observable morphological and kinematic signatures for the case of subvirial collapse. We find that the signatures of the initial conditions can be erased rapidly as the gas and stars collapse, suggesting that kinematic observations need to be made early in cluster formation and/or at larger scales, away from the growing cluster core. Our results emphasize that a dynamically young system is inherently evolving on short timescales, so that it can be highly misleading to use current-epoch conditions to study aspects such as star formation rates as a function of local density. Our simulations serve as a starting point for further studies of collapse including other factors such as magnetic fields and stellar feedback.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2012

DARK MATTER AS AN ACTIVE GRAVITATIONAL AGENT IN CLOUD COMPLEXES

We study the effect that the dark matter background (DMB) has on the gravitational energy content and, in general, on the star formation efficiency (SFE) of a molecular cloud (MC). We first analyze the effect that a dark matter halo, described by the Navarro-Frenk-White density profile, has on the energy budget of a spherical, homogeneous cloud located at different distances from the halo center. We found that MCs located in the innermost regions of a massive galaxy can feel a contraction force greater than their self-gravity due to the incorporation of the potential of the galaxy's dark matter halo. We also calculated analytically the gravitational perturbation that an MC produces over a uniform DMB (uniform at the scales of an MC) and how this perturbation will affect the evolution of the MC itself. The study shows that the star formation in an MC will be considerably enhanced if the cloud is located in a dense and low velocity dark matter environment. We confirm our results by measuring the SFE in numerical simulations of the formation and evolution of MCs within different DMBs. Our study indicates that there are situations where the dark matter's gravitational contribution to the evolution of the MCs should not be neglected.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2010

MOLECULAR CLOUD EVOLUTION. III. ACCRETION VERSUS STELLAR FEEDBACK

We numerically investigate the effect of feedback from the ionization heating from massive stars on the evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and their star formation efficiency (SFE), which we treat as an instantaneous, time-dependent quantity. We follow the GMCs' evolution from their formation to advanced star-forming stages. After an initial period of contraction, the collapsing clouds begin forming stars, whose feedback evaporates part of the clouds' mass, opposing the continuing accretion from the infalling gas. Our results are as follows: (1) in the presence of feedback, the clouds attain levels of the SFE that are consistent at all times with observational determinations for regions of comparable star formation rates. (2) However, the dense gas mass is larger in general in the presence of feedback, while the total mass (dense gas + stars) is nearly insensitive to the presence of feedback, suggesting that it is determined mainly by the accretion, while the feedback inhibits mainly the conversion of dense gas to stars, because it acts directly to reheat and disperse the gas that is directly on its way to forming stars. (3) The factor by which the SFE is reduced upon the inclusion of feedback is a decreasing function of the cloud's mass, for clouds of size {approx}10 pc. This naturally explains the larger observed SFEs of massive-star-forming regions. (4) The clouds may attain a pseudo-virialized state, with a value of the virial mass very similar to the actual cloud mass. However, this state differs from true virialization in that the clouds, rather than being equilibrium entities, are the centers of a larger-scale collapse, in which accretion replenishes the mass consumed by star formation. (5) The higher-density regions within the clouds are in a similar situation, accreting gas infalling from the less-dense, more extended regions of the clouds. (6) The density probability density functions of the regions containing the clouds in general exhibit a shape characteristic of thermally bistable flows, and extend down to densities corresponding to the warm atomic medium, because the warm gas interpenetrates the clouds. The general picture arising from our simulations is that the gas involved in the gravitational contraction leading to star formation extends to large scales and is not confined to the local environment of the final collapse, where the effect of the feedback is active, in agreement with recent proposals of a gravitationally driven mass cascade from large to small scales.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗