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Can Clump Properties Predict Core Distribution in Star Formation? A Statistical Analysis of MHD Simulations

Wei-An Chen, Seamus D. Clarke, Ya-Wen Tang

TL;DR

The paper investigates whether host clump properties can predict the distribution of dense cores formed during fragmentation. Using a large set of magnetohydrodynamic simulations of convergent flows, the authors quantify core distributions with alignment parameters and decompose the energetics into gravity, magnetic fields, and turbulence. They find only weak correlations between clump properties and core distribution for individual clumps; turbulence drives non-homologous collapse and fragmentation, while gravity dominates across the whole population, yielding more compact core configurations. The study concludes that clump properties alone are insufficient to determine core distributions, highlighting the need to consider dynamical processes and energy balance when interpreting mm/sub-mm fragmentation observations.

Abstract

Dense cores, the progenitors of stars, are in sub-pc scale and fragmented from pc-scale clumps. However, it is still unclear that how strongly the fragmentation process is affected by the properties of the host clumps, and how these properties influence the core distribution observed in recent millimeter (mm) and sub-mm observations. To systematically investigate this relation, we employed MHD simulations of convergent flows to generate a large sample of clumps and analyzed their properties using various techniques. Alignment parameters were used to quantify core distribution, while energy terms were calculated to assess the influence of gravity, magnetic fields, and turbulence. We found the core distribution only exhibiting weak correlations between alignment parameters and clump properties. For an individual clump, turbulence is believed to significantly contribute to these features by inducing non-homologous collapse and ongoing fragmentation. Nevertheless, for the entire population, more compact core distributions are observed due to the dominance of gravity. Overall, these factors suggest that clump properties are not sufficient to accurately determine core distribution.

Can Clump Properties Predict Core Distribution in Star Formation? A Statistical Analysis of MHD Simulations

TL;DR

The paper investigates whether host clump properties can predict the distribution of dense cores formed during fragmentation. Using a large set of magnetohydrodynamic simulations of convergent flows, the authors quantify core distributions with alignment parameters and decompose the energetics into gravity, magnetic fields, and turbulence. They find only weak correlations between clump properties and core distribution for individual clumps; turbulence drives non-homologous collapse and fragmentation, while gravity dominates across the whole population, yielding more compact core configurations. The study concludes that clump properties alone are insufficient to determine core distributions, highlighting the need to consider dynamical processes and energy balance when interpreting mm/sub-mm fragmentation observations.

Abstract

Dense cores, the progenitors of stars, are in sub-pc scale and fragmented from pc-scale clumps. However, it is still unclear that how strongly the fragmentation process is affected by the properties of the host clumps, and how these properties influence the core distribution observed in recent millimeter (mm) and sub-mm observations. To systematically investigate this relation, we employed MHD simulations of convergent flows to generate a large sample of clumps and analyzed their properties using various techniques. Alignment parameters were used to quantify core distribution, while energy terms were calculated to assess the influence of gravity, magnetic fields, and turbulence. We found the core distribution only exhibiting weak correlations between alignment parameters and clump properties. For an individual clump, turbulence is believed to significantly contribute to these features by inducing non-homologous collapse and ongoing fragmentation. Nevertheless, for the entire population, more compact core distributions are observed due to the dominance of gravity. Overall, these factors suggest that clump properties are not sufficient to accurately determine core distribution.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 3 sections, 2 equations, 1 figure.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Numerical Methods and Simulation
  3. Initial Condition

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Overview of the initial setup for the convergent flow simulation. The values of the simulation parameters are listed in Table \ref{['tab:SimulationPara']}.