An Origin of Radially Aligned Filaments in Hub-Filament Systems

Abstract

Recent observations have identified hub-filament systems (HFSs) as the primary formation sites of massive stars and star clusters. Some HFSs are characterized by multiple filaments aligned radially toward a central high-density hub. However, the physical origin of radially aligned filaments remains unknown. Here, we propose a new formation mechanism of HFSs driven by the interaction of a fast magnetohydrodynamic shock with a molecular cloud characterized by an hourglass-shaped magnetic field and density inhomogeneity. Our three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations show that the shock propagation leads to the formation of radially aligned filamentary structures with line masses slightly above the thermally critical line mass and lengths of $1$-$3\,\rm{pc}$, and widths of $0.06$-$0.08\,\rm{pc}$. High-density filamentary gas ($n_{\rm{H_2}} \sim 10^4 \, \rm{cm^{-3}}$) selectively exhibits inward velocities of $1-4\, \rm{km \, s^{-1}}$ that increase toward the hub center, while the ambient low-density inter-filament gas retains low velocities regardless of the radius. Mass accretion onto the hub is channeled through dense filaments. The filament formation is driven by oblique shocks generated at the bent magnetic field lines. The resulting post-shock amplification of the tangential magnetic field induces a magnetically guided inflow. The shock-interface interaction amplifies density perturbations, resembling Richtmyer--Meshkov instability modes, which promotes the fragmentation of the shocked layer into multiple filaments. The process studied in this Letter explains both the morphology of radially aligned filaments and the selective mass accretion observed in HFSs. In our simulation, the resulting star formation efficiency is $\sim4\%$, suggesting that the shock-driven evolution limits the SFE to only a few percent.