The density structure and star formation rate of non-isothermal polytropic turbulence

Abstract

The interstellar medium of galaxies is governed by supersonic turbulence, which likely controls the star formation rate (SFR) and the initial mass function (IMF). Interstellar turbulence is non-universal, with a wide range of Mach numbers, magnetic fields strengths, and driving mechanisms. Although some of these parameters were explored, most previous works assumed that the gas is isothermal. However, we know that cold molecular clouds form out of the warm atomic medium, with the gas passing through chemical and thermodynamic phases that are not isothermal. Here we determine the role of temperature variations by modelling non-isothermal turbulence with a polytropic equation of state (EOS), where pressure and temperature are functions of gas density, P~rho^Gamma, T~rho^(Gamma-1). We use grid resolutions of 2048^3 cells and compare polytropic exponents Gamma=0.7 (soft EOS), Gamma=1 (isothermal EOS), and Gamma=5/3 (stiff EOS). We find a complex network of non-isothermal filaments with more small-scale fragmentation occurring for Gamma<1, while Gamma>1 smoothes out density contrasts. The density probability distribution function (PDF) is significantly affected by temperature variations, with a power-law tail developing at low densities for Gamma>1. In contrast, the PDF becomes closer to a lognormal distribution for Gamma<=1. We derive and test a new density variance - Mach number relation that takes Gamma into account. This new relation is relevant for theoretical models of the SFR and IMF, because it determines the dense gas mass fraction of a cloud, from which stars form. We derive the SFR as a function of Gamma and find that it decreases by a factor of ~5 from Gamma=0.7 to Gamma=5/3.