arXiv subjects

Robi Banerjee

Publications and source records attributed to Robi Banerjee.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Comparing Numerical Methods for Isothermal Magnetized Supersonic Turbulence

We employ simulations of supersonic super-Alfvenic turbulence decay as a benchmark test problem to assess and compare the performance of nine astrophysical MHD methods actively used to model star formation. The set of nine codes includes: ENZO, FLASH, KT-MHD, LL-MHD, PLUTO, PPML, RAMSES, STAGGER, and ZEUS. We present a comprehensive set of statistical measures designed to quantify the effects of numerical dissipation in these MHD solvers. We compare power spectra for basic fields to determine the effective spectral bandwidth of the methods and rank them based on their relative effective Reynolds numbers. We also compare numerical dissipation for solenoidal and dilatational velocity components to check for possible impacts of the numerics on small-scale density statistics. Finally, we discuss convergence of various characteristics for the turbulence decay test and impacts of various components of numerical schemes on the accuracy of solutions. We show that the best performing codes employ a consistently high order of accuracy for spatial reconstruction of the evolved fields, transverse gradient interpolation, conservation law update step, and Lorentz force computation. The best results are achieved with divergence-free evolution of the magnetic field using the constrained transport method, and using little to no explicit artificial viscosity. Codes which fall short in one or more of these areas are still useful, but they must compensate higher numerical dissipation with higher numerical resolution. This paper is the largest, most comprehensive MHD code comparison on an application-like test problem to date. We hope this work will help developers improve their numerical algorithms while helping users to make informed choices in picking optimal applications for their specific astrophysical problems.

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arXiv2011

Importance of the Initial Conditions for Star Formation - I. Cloud Evolution and Morphology

We present a detailed parameter study of collapsing turbulent cloud cores, varying the initial density profile and the initial turbulent velocity field. We systematically investigate the influence of different initial conditions on the star formation process, mainly focusing on the fragmentation, the number of formed stars, and the resulting mass distributions. Our study compares four different density profiles (uniform, Bonnor-Ebert type, $ρ\propto r^{-1.5}$, and $ρ\propto r^{-2}$), combined with six different supersonic turbulent velocity fields (compressive, mixed, and solenoidal, initialised with two different random seeds each) in three-dimensional simulations using the adaptive-mesh refinement, hydrodynamics code FLASH. The simulations show that density profiles with flat cores produce hundreds of low-mass stars, either distributed throughout the entire cloud or found in subclusters, depending on the initial turbulence. Concentrated density profiles always lead to the formation of one high-mass star in the centre of the cloud and, if at all, low-mass stars surrounding the central one. In uniform and Bonnor-Ebert type density distributions, compressive initial turbulence leads to local collapse about 25% earlier than solenoidal turbulence. However, central collapse in the steep power-law profiles is too fast for the turbulence to have any significant influence. We conclude that (I) the initial density profile and turbulence mainly determine the cloud evolution and the formation of clusters, (II) the initial mass function (IMF) is not universal for all setups, and (III) that massive stars are much less likely to form in flat density distributions. The IMFs obtained in the uniform and Bonnor-Ebert type density profiles are more consistent with the observed IMF, but shifted to lower masses.

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arXiv2011

Magnetic fields during primordial star formation

Recent FERMI observations provide a lower limit of 10^{-15} G for the magnetic field strength in the intergalactic medium (IGM). This is consistent with theoretical expectations based on the Biermann battery effect, which predicts such IGM fields already at redshifts z~10. During gravitational collapse, such magnetic fields can be amplified by compression and by turbulence, giving rise to the small-scale dynamo. On scales below the Jeans length, the eddy turnover timescale is much shorter than the free-fall timescale, so that saturation can be reached during collapse. This scenario has been tested and confirmed with magneto-hydrodynamical simulations following the collapse of a turbulent, weakly magnetized cloud. Based on a spectral analysis, we confirm that turbulence is injected on the Jeans scale. For the power spectrum of the magnetic field, we obtain the Kazantsev slope which is characteristic for the small-scale dynamo. A calculation of the critical length scales for ambipolar diffusion and Ohmic dissipation shows that these scales are always small enough to allow significant amplification of the magnetic field by small-scale eddies. We discuss potential implications for the protostellar accretion disk, with particular focus on the magneto-rotational instability, which may change the morphology of the disk and reduce the accretion rate by a factor of a few.

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arXiv2011

A new Jeans resolution criterion for (M)HD simulations of self-gravitating gas: Application to magnetic field amplification by gravity-driven turbulence

Cosmic structure formation is characterized by the complex interplay between gravity, turbulence, and magnetic fields. The processes by which gravitational energy is converted into turbulent and magnetic energies, however, remain poorly understood. Here, we show with high-resolution, adaptive-mesh simulations that MHD turbulence is efficiently driven by extracting energy from the gravitational potential during the collapse of a dense gas cloud. Compressible motions generated during the contraction are converted into solenoidal, turbulent motions, leading to a natural energy ratio of E_sol/E_tot of approximately 2/3. We find that the energy injection scale of gravity-driven turbulence is close to the local Jeans scale. If small seeds of the magnetic field are present, they are amplified exponentially fast via the small-scale dynamo process. The magnetic field grows most efficiently on the smallest scales, for which the stretching, twisting, and folding of field lines, and the turbulent vortices are sufficiently resolved. We find that this scale corresponds to about 30 grid cells in the simulations. We thus suggest a new minimum resolution criterion of 30 cells per Jeans length in (magneto)hydrodynamical simulations of self-gravitating gas, in order to resolve turbulence on the Jeans scale, and to capture minimum dynamo amplification of the magnetic field. Due to numerical diffusion, however, any existing simulation today can at best provide lower limits on the physical growth rates. We conclude that a small, initial magnetic field can grow to dynamically important strength on time scales significantly shorter than the free-fall time of the cloud.

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arXiv2011

The Interplay of Magnetic Fields, Fragmentation and Ionization Feedback in High-Mass Star Formation

Massive stars disproportionately influence their surroundings. How they form has only started to become clear recently through radiation gas dynamical simulations. However, until now, no simulation has simultaneously included both magnetic fields and ionizing radiation. Here we present the results from the first radiation-magnetohydrodynamical (RMHD) simulation including ionization feedback, comparing an RMHD model of a 1000 M_sol rotating cloud to earlier radiation gas dynamical models with the same initial density and velocity distributions. We find that despite starting with a strongly supercritical mass to flux ratio, the magnetic field has three effects. First, the field offers locally support against gravitational collapse in the accretion flow, substantially reducing the amount of secondary fragmentation in comparison to the gas dynamical case. Second, the field drains angular momentum from the collapsing gas, further increasing the amount of material available for accretion by the central, massive, protostar, and thus increasing its final mass by about 50% from the purely gas dynamical case. Third, the field is wound up by the rotation of the flow, driving a tower flow. However, this flow never achieves the strength seen in low-mass star formation simulations for two reasons: gravitational fragmentation disrupts the circular flow in the central regions where the protostars form, and the expanding H II regions tend to further disrupt the field geometry. Therefore, outflows driven by ionization heating look likely to be more dynamically important in regions of massive star formation.

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arXiv2011

Molecular Cloud Evolution IV: Magnetic Fields, Ambipolar Diffusion, and the Star Formation Efficiency

We investigate the formation and evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) by the collision of convergent warm neutral medium (WNM) streams in the interstellar medium, in the presence of magnetic fields and ambipolar diffusion (AD), focusing on the evolution of the star formation rate (SFR) and efficiency (SFE), as well as of the mass-to-magnetic-flux ratio (M2FR) in the forming clouds. We find that: 1) Clouds formed by supercritical inflow streams proceed directly to collapse, while clouds formed by subcritical streams first contract and then re-expand, oscillating on the scale of tens of Myr. 2) Our suite of simulations with initial magnetic field strength of 2, 3, and 4 $μ\G$ show that only supercritical or marginal critical streams lead to reasonable star forming rates. 3) The GMC's M2FR is a generally increasing function of time, whose growth rate depends on the details of how mass is added to the GMC from the WNM. 4) The M2FR is a highly fluctuating function of position in the clouds. 5) In our simulations, the SFE approaches stationarity, because mass is added to the GMC at a similar rate at which it converts mass to stars. In such an approximately stationary regime, the SFE provides a proxy of the supercritical mass fraction in the cloud. 6) We observe the occurrence of buoyancy of the low-M2FR regions within the gravitationally-contracting GMCs, so that the latter naturally segregate into a high-density, high-M2FR "core" and a low-density, low-M2FR "envelope", without the intervention of AD. (Abridged)

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arXiv2010

Limiting Accretion onto Massive Stars by Fragmentation-Induced Starvation

Massive stars influence their surroundings through radiation, winds, and supernova explosions far out of proportion to their small numbers. However, the physical processes that initiate and govern the birth of massive stars remain poorly understood. Two widely discussed models are monolithic collapse of molecular cloud cores and competitive accretion. To learn more about massive star formation, we perform simulations of the collapse of rotating, massive, cloud cores including radiative heating by both non-ionizing and ionizing radiation using the FLASH adaptive mesh refinement code. These simulations show fragmentation from gravitational instability in the enormously dense accretion flows required to build up massive stars. Secondary stars form rapidly in these flows and accrete mass that would have otherwise been consumed by the massive star in the center, in a process that we term fragmentation-induced starvation. This explains why massive stars are usually found as members of high-order stellar systems that themselves belong to large clusters containing stars of all masses. The radiative heating does not prevent fragmentation, but does lead to a higher Jeans mass, resulting in fewer and more massive stars than would form without the heating. This mechanism reproduces the observed relation between the total stellar mass in the cluster and the mass of the largest star. It predicts strong clumping and filamentary structure in the center of collapsing cores, as has recently been observed. We speculate that a similar mechanism will act during primordial star formation.

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arXiv2010

Implementing and comparing sink particles in AMR and SPH

We implemented sink particles in the Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) code FLASH to model the gravitational collapse and accretion in turbulent molecular clouds and cores. Sink particles are frequently used to measure properties of star formation in numerical simulations, such as the star formation rate and efficiency, and the mass distribution of stars. We show that only using a density threshold for sink particle creation is insufficient in case of supersonic flows, because the density can exceed the threshold in strong shocks that do not necessarily lead to local collapse. Additional physical collapse indicators have to be considered. We apply our AMR sink particle module to the formation of a star cluster, and compare it to a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code with sink particles. Our comparison shows encouraging agreement of gas and sink particle properties between the AMR and SPH code.

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arXiv2010

Small-scale dynamo action during the formation of the first stars and galaxies. I. The ideal MHD limit

We explore the amplification of magnetic seed fields during the formation of the first stars and galaxies. During gravitational collapse, turbulence is created from accretion shocks, which may act to amplify weak magnetic fields in the protostellar cloud. Numerical simulations showed that such turbulence is sub-sonic in the first star-forming minihalos, and highly supersonic in the first galaxies with virial temperatures larger than 10^4 K. We investigate the magnetic field amplification during the collapse both for Kolmogorov and Burgers-type turbulence with a semi-analytic model that incorporates the effects of gravitational compression and small-scale dynamo amplification. We find that the magnetic field may be substantially amplified before the formation of a disk. On scales of 1/10 of the Jeans length, saturation occurs after ~10^8 yr. Although the saturation behaviour of the small-scale dynamo is still somewhat uncertain, we expect a saturation field strength of the order ~10^{-7} n^{0.5} G in the first star-forming halos, with n the number density in cgs units. In the first galaxies with higher turbulent velocities, the magnetic field strength may be increased by an order of magnitude, and saturation may occur after 10^6 to 10^7 yr. In the Kolmogorov case, the magnetic field strength on the integral scale (i.e. the scale with most magnetic power) is higher due to the characteristic power-law indices, but the difference is less than a factor of 2 in the saturated phase. Our results thus indicate that the precise scaling of the turbulent velocity with length scale is of minor importance. They further imply that magnetic fields will be significantly enhanced before the formation of a protostellar disk, where they may change the fragmentation properties of the gas and the accretion rate.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

The generation of strong magnetic fields during the formation of the first stars

Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of primordial star formation suggest that the gas within the first star-forming halos is turbulent. This has strong implications on the subsequent evolution, in particular on the generation of magnetic fields. Using high-resolution numerical simulations, we show that in the presence of turbulence, weak seed magnetic fields are exponentially amplified by the small-scale dynamo during the formation of the first stars. We conclude that strong magnetic fields are generated during the birth of the first stars in the universe, potentially modifying the mass distribution of these stars and influencing the subsequent cosmic evolution. We find that the presence of the small-scale turbulent dynamo can only be identified in numerical simulations in which the turbulent motions in the central core are resolved with at least 32 grid cells.

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arXiv2010

Modeling High-Mass Star Formation and Ultracompact HII Regions

Massive stars influence the surrounding universe far out of proportion to their numbers through ionizing radiation, supernova explosions, and heavy element production. Their formation requires the collapse of massive interstellar gas clouds with very high accretion rates. We discuss results from the first three-dimensional simulations of the gravitational collapse of a massive, rotating molecular cloud core that include heating by both non-ionizing and ionizing radiation. Local gravitational instabilities in the accretion flow lead to the build-up of a small cluster of stars. These lower-mass companions subsequently compete with the high-mass star for the same common gas reservoir and limit its overall mass growth. This process is called fragmentation-induced starvation, and explains why massive stars are usually found as members of high-order stellar systems. These simulations also show that the HII regions forming around massive stars are initially trapped by the infalling gas, but soon begin to fluctuate rapidly. Over time, the same ultracompact HII region can expand anisotropically, contract again, and take on any of the observed morphological classes. The total lifetime of HII regions is given by the global accretion timescale, rather than their short internal sound-crossing time. This solves the so-called lifetime problem of ultracompact HII region. We conclude that the the most significant differences between the formation of low-mass and high-mass stars are all explained as the result of rapid accretion within a dense, gravitationally unstable flow.

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arXiv2010

Understanding Spatial and Spectral Morphologies of Ultracompact H II Regions

The spatial morphology, spectral characteristics, and time variability of ultracompact H II regions provide strong constraints on the process of massive star formation. We have performed simulations of the gravitational collapse of rotating molecular cloud cores, including treatments of the propagation of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. We here present synthetic radio continuum observations of H II regions from our collapse simulations, to investigate how well they agree with observation, and what we can learn about how massive star formation proceeds. We find that intermittent shielding by dense filaments in the gravitationally unstable accretion flow around the massive star leads to highly variable H II regions that do not grow monotonically, but rather flicker, growing and shrinking repeatedly. This behavior appears able to resolve the well-known lifetime problem. We find that multiple ionizing sources generally form, resulting in groups of ultracompact H II regions, consistent with observations. We confirm that our model reproduces the qualitative H II region morphologies found in surveys, with generally consistent relative frequencies. We also find that simulated spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from our model are consistent with the range of observed H II region SEDs, including both regions showing a normal transition from optically thick to optically thin emission, and those with intermediate spectral slopes. In our models, anomalous slopes are solely produced by inhomogeneities in the H II region, with no contribution from dust emission at millimeter or submillimeter wavelengths. We conclude that many observed characteristics of ultracompact H II regions appear consistent with massive star formation in fast, gravitationally unstable, accretion flows.

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arXiv2010

The formation of supermassive black holes in the first galaxies

We discuss the formation of supermassive black holes in the early universe, and how to probe their subsequent evolution with the upcoming mm/sub-mm telescope ALMA. We first focus on the chemical and radiative conditions for black hole formation, in particular considering radiation trapping and molecular dissociation effects. We then turn our attention towards the magnetic properties in the halos where the first black holes form, and show that the presence of turbulence may lead to a magnetic dynamo, which could support the black hole formation process by providing an efficient means of transporting the angular momentum. We finally focus on observable properties of high-redshift black holes with respect to ALMA, and discuss how to distinguish between chemistry driven by the starburst and chemistry driven by X-rays from the black hole.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Modeling Collapse and Accretion in Turbulent Gas Clouds: Implementation and Comparison of Sink Particles in AMR and SPH

We implemented sink particles in the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydrodynamics code FLASH. Sink particles are created in regions of local gravitational collapse, and their trajectories and accretion can be followed over many dynamical times. We perform a series of tests including the time integration of circular and elliptical orbits, the collapse of a Bonnor-Ebert sphere and a rotating, fragmenting cloud core. We compare the collapse of a highly unstable singular isothermal sphere to the theory by Shu (1977), and show that the sink particle accretion rate is in excellent agreement with the theoretical prediction. To model eccentric orbits and close encounters of sink particles accurately, we show that a very small timestep is often required, for which we implemented subcycling of the N-body system. We emphasize that a sole density threshold for sink particle creation is insufficient in supersonic flows, if the density threshold is below the opacity limit. In that case, the density can exceed the threshold in strong shocks that do not necessarily lead to local collapse. Additional checks for bound state, gravitational potential minimum, Jeans instability and converging flows are absolutely necessary for a meaningful creation of sink particles. We apply our new sink particle module for FLASH to the formation of a stellar cluster, and compare to a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code with sink particles. Our comparison shows encouraging agreement of gas properties, indicated by column density distributions and radial profiles, and of sink particle formation times and positions. We find excellent agreement in the number of sink particles formed, and in their accretion and mass distributions.

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arXiv2010

H II regions: Witnesses to massive star formation

We describe the first three-dimensional simulation of the gravitational collapse of a massive, rotating molecular cloud that includes heating by both non-ionizing and ionizing radiation. We find that as the first protostars gain sufficient mass to ionize the accretion flow, their H II regions are initially gravitationally trapped, but soon begin to rapidly fluctuate between trapped and extended states, in agreement with observations. Over time, the same ultracompact H II region can expand anisotropically, contract again, and take on any of the observed morphological classes. In their extended phases, expanding H II regions drive bipolar neutral outflows characteristic of high-mass star formation. The total lifetime of H II regions is given by the global accretion timescale, rather than their short internal sound-crossing time. The pressure of the hot, ionized gas does not terminate accretion. Instead the final stellar mass is set by fragmentation-induced starvation. Local gravitational instabilities in the accretion flow lead to the build-up of a small cluster of stars, all with relatively high masses due to heating from accretion radiation. These companions subsequently compete with the initial high-mass star for the same common gas reservoir and limit its mass growth. Our findings show that the most significant differences between the formation of low-mass and high-mass stars are all explained as the result of rapid accretion within a dense, gravitationally unstable, ionized flow.

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arXiv2009

The influence of magnetic fields on the thermodynamics of primordial star formation

We explore the effects of magnetic energy dissipation on the formation of the first stars. For this purpose, we follow the evolution of primordial chemistry in the presence of magnetic fields in the post-recombination universe until the formation of the first virialized halos. From the point of virialization, we follow the protostellar collapse up to densities of $\sim10^{12}$ cm$^{-3}$ in a one-zone model. In the intergalactic medium (IGM), comoving field strengths of $\gtrsim0.1$ nG lead to Jeans masses of $10^8 M_\odot$ or more and thus delay gravitational collapse in the first halos until they are sufficiently massive. During protostellar collapse, we find that the temperature minimum at densities of $\sim10^3$ cm$^{-3}$ does not change significantly, such that the characteristic mass scale for fragmentation is not affected. However, we find a significant temperature increase at higher densities for comoving field strengths of $\gtrsim0.1$ nG. This may delay gravitational collapse, in particular at densities of $\sim10^9$ cm$^{-3}$, where the proton abundance drops rapidly and the main contribution to the ambipolar diffusion resistivity is due to collisions with Li$^+$. After the formation of the protostar, the increased gas temperatures may enhance the protostellar accretion rate. Our model confirms that initial weak magnetic fields may be amplified considerably during gravitational collapse and become dynamically relevant. For instance, a comoving field strength above $10^{-5}$ nG will be amplified above the critical value for the onset of jets which can magnetize the IGM.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Clump morphology and evolution in MHD simulations of molecular cloud formation

Abridged: We study the properties of clumps formed in three-dimensional weakly magnetized magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of converging flows in the thermally bistable, warm neutral medium (WNM). We find that: (1) Similarly to the situation in the classical two-phase medium, cold, dense clumps form through dynamically-triggered thermal instability in the compressed layer between the convergent flows, and are often characterised by a sharp density jump at their boundaries though not always. (2) However, the clumps are bounded by phase-transition fronts rather than by contact discontinuities, and thus they grow in size and mass mainly by accretion of WNM material through their boundaries. (3) The clump boundaries generally consist of thin layers of thermally unstable gas, but these layers are often widened by the turbulence, and penetrate deep into the clumps. (4) The clumps are approximately in both ram and thermal pressure balance with their surroundings, a condition which causes their internal Mach numbers to be comparable to the bulk Mach number of the colliding WNM flows. (5) The clumps typically have mean temperatures 20 < T < 50 K, corresponding to the wide range of densities they contain (20 < n < 5000 pcc) under a nearly-isothermal equation of state. (6) The turbulent ram pressure fluctuations of the WNM induce density fluctuations that then serve as seeds for local gravitational collapse within the clumps. (7) The velocity and magnetic fields tend to be aligned with each other within the clumps, although both are significantly fluctuating, suggesting that the velocity tends to stretch and align the magnetic field with it. (8) The typical mean field strength in the clumps is a few times larger than that in the WNM. (9) The magnetic field strength has a mean value of B ~ 6 mu G ...

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arXiv2009

Dark stars: Implications and constraints from cosmic reionization and extragalactic background radiation

Dark stars powered by dark matter annihilation have been proposed as the first luminous sources in the universe. These stars are believed to form in the central dark matter cusp of low-mass minihalos. Recent calculations indicate stellar masses up to \sim1000 solar masses and/or have very long lifetimes. The UV photons from these objects could therefore contribute significantly to cosmic reionization. Here we show that such dark star models would require a somewhat artificial reionization history, based on a double-reionization phase and a late star-burst near redshift $z\sim6$, in order to fulfill the WMAP constraint on the optical depth as well as the Gunn-Peterson constraint at $z\sim6$. This suggests that, if dark stars were common in the early universe, then models are preferred which predict a number of UV photons similar to conventional Pop. III stars. This excludes dark stars with 100 solar masses that enter a main-sequence phase and other models that lead to a strong increase in the number of UV photons. We also derive constraints for massive as well as light dark matter candidates from the observed X-ray, gamma-ray and neutrino background, considering dark matter profiles which have been steepened during the formation of dark stars. This increases the clumping factor at high redshift and gives rise to a higher dark matter annihilation rate in the early universe. We furthermore estimate the potential contribution from the annihilation products in the remnants of dark stars, which may provide a promising path to constrain such models further, but which is currently still uncertain.

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