• Title/Summary/Keyword: ISM: turbulence

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THE UNUSUAL STELLAR MASS FUNCTION OF STARBURST CLUSTERS

  • Dib, Sami
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.40 no.4
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    • pp.157-160
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    • 2007
  • I present a model to explain the mass segregation and shallow mass functions observed in the central parts of starburst stellar clusters. The model assumes that the initial pre-stellar cores mass function resulting from the turbulent fragmentation of the proto-cluster cloud is significantly altered by the cores coalescence before they collapse to form stars. With appropriate, yet realistic parameters, this model based on the competition between cores coalescence and collapse reproduces the mass spectra of the well studied Arches cluster. Namely, the slopes at the intermediate and high mass ends, as well as the peculiar bump observed at $6M_{\bigodot}$. This coalescence-collapse process occurs on a short timescale of the order of the free fall time of the proto-cluster cloud (i.e., a few $10^4$ years), suggesting that mass segregation in Arches and similar clusters is primordial. The best fitting model implies the total mass of the Arches cluster is $1.45{\times}10^5M_{\bigodot}$, which is slightly higher than the often quoted, but completeness affected, observational value of a few $10^4M_{\bigodot}$. The model implies a star formation efficiency of ${\sim}30$ percent which implies that the Arches cluster is likely to a gravitationally bound system.

Estimate the Magnetic Field Strength using rotation measure

  • Yoon, Hee-Sun;Cho, Jung-Yeon
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.36 no.2
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    • pp.107.2-107.2
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    • 2011
  • Most astrophysical systems are turbulent and magnetized. Magnetic field plays an important role in the dynamics of astrophysical system and influence all of properties of astrophysical system. Therefore, information of magnetic field is very important to understand properties of astrophysical system. One way to obtain information of magnetic field is to use rotation measure. Mean strength of the magnetic field along the line of sight can be estimated from RM/DM, where RM is rotation measure and DM is dispersion measure. For the estimation of magnetic field strength using RM/DM, the correlation between density and magnetic field. When there is no correlation between density and magnetic field the relation gives exact mean magnetic strength. But if the positive correlation, it overestimates the magnetic field strength, while if the correlation is negative, it underestimate the magnetic field strength. In general, the ICM (intracluter medium) and the ISM (interstellar medium) cases, viscosity has a value greater than magnetic diffusion. We performed compressible MHD turbulence simulations and we studied correlation between density and magnetic field in different values of viscosity and magnetic diffusion. In most cases, we found weak or negative relations between the density and magnetic fields. We discuss implication of our results.

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Probing the Conditions for the Atomic-to-Molecular Transition in the Interstellar Medium

  • Park, Gyueun;Lee, Min-Young
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.46 no.1
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    • pp.50.2-51
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    • 2021
  • Stars form exclusively in cold and dense molecular clouds. To fully understand star formation processes, it is hence a key to investigate how molecular clouds form out of the surrounding diffuse atomic gas. With an aim of shedding light in the process of the atomic-to-molecular transition in the interstellar medium, we analyze Arecibo HI emission and absorption spectral pairs along with TRAO/PMO 12CO(1-0) emission spectra toward 58 lines of sight probing in and around molecular clouds in the solar neighborhood, i.e., Perseus, Taurus, and California. 12CO(1-0) is detected from 19 out of 58 lines of sight, and we report the physical properties of HI (e.g., central velocity, spin temperature, and column density) in the vicinity of CO. Our preliminary results show that the velocity difference between the cold HI (Cold Neutral Medium or CNM) and CO (median ~ 0.7 km/s) is on average more than a factor of two smaller than the velocity difference between the warm HI (Warm Neutral Medium or WNM) and CO (median ~ 1.7 km/s). In addition, we find that the CNM tends to become colder (median spin temperature ~ 43 K) and abundant (median CNM fraction ~ 0.55) as it gets closer to CO. These results hints at the evolution of the CNM in the vicinity of CO, implying a close association between the CNM and molecular gas. Finally, in order to examine the role of HI in the formation of molecular gas, we compare the observed CNM properties to the theoretical model by Bialy & Sternberg (2016), where the HI column density for the HI-to-H2 transition point is predicted as a function of density, metallicity, and UV radiation field. Our comparison shows that while the model reproduces the observations reasonably well on average, the observed CNM components with high column densities are much denser than the model prediction. Several sources of this discrepancy, e.g., missing physical and chemical ingredients in the model such as the multi-phase ISM, non-equilibrium chemistry, and turbulence, will be discussed.

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