arXiv subjects

S. A. E. G. Falle

Publications and source records attributed to S. A. E. G. Falle.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Shocking interactions of supernova remnants with atomic and molecular clouds -- the interplay between shocks, thermal instability and gravity in the large cloud regime

Using the adaptive mesh refinement code MG, we perform 3D hydrodynamic simulations of a supernova-cloud interaction in the "large cloud regime". The cloud is initially atomic and evolving due to the thermal instability (TI) and gravity. We study interactions in a "pre-TI" and "post-TI" stage when cold and dense clumps are present, and compare these results to idealised shock-cloud scenarios in the "small cloud regime", and a scenario without shocks. On aggregate, the supernova disruption is significantly weaker than that from an idealised shock due to the supernova impact being instantaneous, and not continuous. In both supernova-cloud interactions, we observe two shocks impact the cloud, followed by the development of a weak 10 km s$^{-1}$ upstream flow on the cloud interface, and a global ambient pressure drop. When the cloud is still atomic, it expands due to this drop. Additionally, the TI is triggered at the front of the cloud, causing the formation of a cap-like structure with clumps embedded inside. The upstream flow converges in this region, resulting in a lobe-like cloud morphology. When the cloud is molecular, the transmitted shock disrupts the inter-clump material and causes the clumps' outer envelopes to expand slightly and form tail-like morphologies. These effects are less pronounced than those in our shock-cloud scenarios, and more pronounced that those in our un-shocked scenario. After 3.5 Myrs, the effects from the supernova decay and the cloud returns to an almost indistinguishable state from an un-shocked cloud, in spite of the global ambient pressure drop. In neither supernova-cloud scenario do we see any local gravitational collapse.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Interactions of a shock with a molecular cloud at various stages of its evolution due to thermal instability and gravity

Using the adaptive mesh refinement code MG, we perform hydrodynamic simulations of the interaction of a shock with a molecular cloud evolving due to thermal instability and gravity. To explore the relative importance of these processes, three case studies are presented. The first follows the formation of a molecular cloud out of an initially quiescent atomic medium due to the effects of thermal instability and gravity. The second case introduces a shock whilst the cloud is still in the warm atomic phase, and the third scenario introduces a shock once the molecular cloud has formed. The shocks accelerate the global collapse of the clouds with both experiencing local gravitational collapse prior to this. When the cloud is still atomic, the evolution is shock dominated and structures form due to dynamical instabilities within a radiatively cooled shell. While the transmitted shock can potentially trigger the thermal instability, this is prevented as material is shocked multiple times on the order of a cloud crushing time-scale. When the cloud is molecular, the post-shock flow is directed via the pre-existing structure through low-density regions in the inter-clump medium. The clumps are accelerated and deformed as the flow induces clump-clump collisions and mergers that collapse under gravity. For a limited period, both shocked cases show a mixture of Kolmogorov and Burgers turbulence-like velocity and logarithmic density power spectra, and strongly varying density spectra. The clouds presented in this work provide realistic conditions that will be used in future feedback studies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Striations, integrals, hourglasses and collapse -- thermal instability driven magnetic simulations of molecular clouds

The MHD version of the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code, MG, has been employed to study the interaction of thermal instability, magnetic fields and gravity through 3D simulations of the formation of collapsing cold clumps on the scale of a few parsecs, inside a larger molecular cloud. The diffuse atomic initial condition consists of a stationary, thermally unstable, spherical cloud in pressure equilibrium with lower density surroundings and threaded by a uniform magnetic field. This cloud was seeded with 10% density perturbations at the finest initial grid level around n=1.1 cm^{-3} and evolved with self-gravity included from the outset. Several cloud diameters were considered (100 pc, 200 pc and 400 pc) equating to several cloud masses (17,000 Msun, 136,000 Msun and 1.1x10^6 Msun). Low-density magnetic-field-aligned striations were observed as the clouds collapse along the field lines into disc-like structures. The induced flow along field lines leads to oscillations of the sheet about the gravitational minimum and an integral-shaped appearance. When magnetically supercritical, the clouds then collapse and generate hourglass magnetic field configurations with strongly intensified magnetic fields, reproducing observational behaviour. Resimulation of a region of the highest mass cloud at higher resolution forms gravitationally-bound collapsing clumps within the sheet that contain clump-frame supersonic (M~5) and super-Alfvenic (M_A~4) velocities. Observationally realistic density and velocity power spectra of the cloud and densest clump are obtained. Future work will use these realistic initial conditions to study individual star and cluster feedback.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2019

Sheets, filaments and clumps - high resolution simulations of how the thermal instability can form molecular clouds

This paper describes 3D simulations of the formation of collapsing cold clumps via thermal instability inside a larger cloud complex. The initial condition was a diffuse atomic, stationary, thermally unstable, 200pc diameter spherical cloud in pressure equilibrium with low density surroundings. This was seeded with 10% density perturbations at the finest initial grid level (0.29pc) around n_H = 1.1cm^{-3} and evolved with self-gravity included. No magnetic field was imposed. Resimulations at a higher resolution of a region extracted from this simulation (down to 0.039pc), show that the thermal instability forms sheets, then filaments and finally clumps. The width of the filaments increases over time, in one particular case from 0.26 to 0.56pc. Thereafter clumps with sizes of around 5pc grow at the intersections of filaments. 21 distinct clumps, with properties similar to those observed in molecular clouds, are found by using the FellWalker algorithm to find minima in the gravitational potential. Not all of these are gravitationally bound, but the convergent nature of the flow and increasing central density suggest they are likely to form stars. Further simulation of the most massive clump shows the gravitational collapse to a density >10^6 cm^{-3}. These results provide realistic initial conditions that can be used to study feedback in individual clumps, interacting clumps and the entire molecular cloud complex.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

A new mechanical stellar wind feedback model for the Rosette Nebula

The famous Rosette Nebula has an evacuated central cavity formed from the stellar winds ejected from the 2-6 million-year-old co-distant and co-moving central star cluster NGC 2244. However, with upper age estimates of less than 110,000 years, the central cavity is too young compared to NGC 2244 and existing models do not reproduce its properties. A new proper motion study herein using Gaia data reveals the ejection of the most massive star in the Rosette, HD46223, from NGC 2244 occurred 1.73 (+0.34,-0.25)Myr (1$σ$ uncertainty) in the past. Assuming this ejection was at the birth of the most massive stars in NGC 2244, including the dominant centrally positioned HD46150, the age is set for the famous ionised region at more than ten times that derived for the cavity. Here, we are able to reproduce the structure of the Rosette Nebula, through simulation of mechanical stellar feedback from a 40M$_{\odot}$ star in a thin sheet-like molecular cloud. We form the 135,000M$_{\odot}$ cloud from thermally-unstable diffuse interstellar medium under the influence of a realistic background magnetic field with thermal/magnetic pressure equilibrium. Properties derived from a snapshot of the simulation at 1.5Myr, including cavity size, stellar age, magnetic field and resulting inclination to the line of sight, match those derived from observations. An elegant explanation is thus provided for the stark contrast in age estimates based on realistic diffuse ISM properties, molecular cloud formation and stellar wind feedback.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

The interaction of hydrodynamic shocks with self-gravitating clouds

We describe the results of 3D simulations of the interaction of hydrodynamic shocks with Bonnor-Ebert spheres performed with an Adaptive Mesh Refinement code. The calculations are isothermal and the clouds are embedded in a medium in which the sound speed is either four or ten times that in the cloud. The strengths of the shocks are such that they induce gravitational collapse in some cases and not in others and we derive a simple estimate for the shock strength required for this to occur. These results are relevant to dense cores and Bok globules in star forming regions subjected to shocks produced by stellar feedback.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Magnetohydrodynamic simulations of mechanical stellar feedback in a sheet-like molecular cloud

We have used the AMR hydrodynamic code, MG, to perform 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations with self-gravity of stellar feedback in a sheet-like molecular cloud formed through the action of the thermal instability. We simulate the interaction of the mechanical energy input from a 15 solar mass star and a 40 solar mass star into a 100 pc-diameter 17000 solar mass cloud with a corrugated sheet morphology that in projection appears filamentary. The stellar winds are introduced using appropriate Geneva stellar evolution models. In the 15 solar mass star case, the wind forms a narrow bipolar cavity with minimal effect on the parent cloud. In the 40 solar mass star case, the more powerful stellar wind creates a large cylindrical cavity through the centre of the cloud. After 12.5 Myrs and 4.97 Myrs respectively, the massive stars explode as supernovae (SNe). In the 15 solar mass star case, the SN material and energy is primarily deposited into the molecular cloud surroundings over ~10^5 years before the SN remnant escapes the cloud. In the 40 solar mass star case, a significant fraction of the SN material and energy rapidly escapes the molecular cloud along the wind cavity in a few tens of kiloyears. Both SN events compress the molecular cloud material around them to higher densities (so may trigger further star formation), and strengthen the magnetic field, typically by factors of 2-3 but up to a factor of 10. Our simulations are relevant to observations of bubbles in flattened ring-like molecular clouds and bipolar HII regions.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Ambipolar diffusion regulated collapse of filaments threaded by perpendicular magnetic fields

We numerically reproduce the density profiles for filaments that are in magnetohydrostatic and pressure equilibrium with their surroundings obtained in Tomisaka (2014) and show that these equilibria are dynamically stable. If the effect of ambipolar diffusion is considered, these filaments lose magnetic support initiating cloud collapse. The filaments do not lose magnetic flux. Rather the magnetic flux is redistributed within the filament from the centre towards the envelope. The rate of the collapse is inversely proportional to the fractional ionisation and two gravitationally-driven ambipolar diffusion regimes for the collapse are observed as predicted in Mouschovias & Morton (1991). For high values of the ionisation coefficient, that is $X \geq 10^{-7}$, the gas is strongly coupled to the magnetic field and the Jeans length is larger than the ambipolar diffusion length scale. Then the collapse is governed by magnetically-regulated ambipolar diffusion. For $X \lesssim 10^{-8}$, the gas is weakly coupled to the magnetic field and the magnetic support is removed by gravitationally-dominated ambipolar diffusion. Here, neutrals and ions only collide sporadically, that is the ambipolar diffusion length scale is larger than the Jeans length. When decaying turbulence is included, additional support is provided to the filament. This slows down the collapse of the filament even in the absence of a magnetic field. When a magnetic field is present, the collapse rate increases by a ratio smaller than for the non-magnetic case. This is because of a speed-up of the ambipolar diffusion due to larger magnetic field gradients generated by the turbulence and because the ambipolar diffusion aids the dissipation of turbulence below the ambipolar diffusion length scale. The highest increase in the rate is observed for the lowest ionisation coefficient and the highest turbulent intensity.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

MHD simulation of the formation of clumps and filaments in quiescent diffuse medium by thermal instability

We have used the AMR hydrodynamic code, MG, to perform idealised 3D MHD simulations of the formation of clumpy and filamentary structure in a thermally unstable medium without turbulence. A stationary thermally unstable spherical diffuse atomic cloud with uniform density in pressure equilibrium with low density surroundings was seeded with random density variations and allowed to evolve. A range of magnetic field strengths threading the cloud have been explored, from beta=0.1 to beta=1.0 to the zero magnetic field case (beta=infinity), where beta is the ratio of thermal pressure to magnetic pressure. Once the density inhomogeneities had developed to the point where gravity started to become important, self-gravity was introduced to the simulation. With no magnetic field, clouds and clumps form within the cloud with aspect ratios of around unity, whereas in the presence of a relatively strong field (beta=0.1) these become filaments, then evolve into interconnected corrugated sheets that are predominantly perpendicular to the magnetic field. With magnetic and thermal pressure equality (beta=1.0), filaments, clouds and clumps are formed. At any particular instant, the projection of the 3D structure onto a plane parallel to the magnetic field, i.e. a line of sight perpendicular to the magnetic field, resembles the appearance of filamentary molecular clouds. The filament densities, widths, velocity dispersions and temperatures resemble those observed in molecular clouds. In contrast, in the strong field case beta=0.1, projection of the 3D structure along a line of sight parallel to the magnetic field reveals a remarkably uniform structure.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Numerical Simulations of a Shock Interacting with Multiple Magnetized Clouds

We present 2D adiabatic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of a shock interacting with groups of two or three cylindrical clouds. We study how the presence of a nearby cloud influences the dynamics of this interaction, and explore the resulting differences and similarities in the evolution of each cloud. The understanding gained from this small-scale study will help to interpret the behaviour of systems with many 10's or 100's of clouds. We observe a wide variety of behaviour in the interactions studied, which is dependent on the initial positions of the clouds and the orientation and strength of the magnetic field. We find: i) some clouds are stretched along their field-lines, whereas others are confined by their field-lines; ii) upstream clouds may accelerate past downstream clouds (though magnetic tension can prevent this); iii) clouds may also change their relative positions transverse to the direction of shock propagation as they "slingshot" past each other; iv) downstream clouds may be offered some protection from the oncoming flow as a result of being in the lee of an upstream cloud; v) the cycle of cloud compression and re-expansion is generally weaker when there are nearby neighbouring clouds; vi) the plasma $β$ in cloud material can vary rapidly as clouds collide with one another, but low values of $β$ are always transitory. This work is relevant to studies of multi-phase regions, where fast, low-density gas interacts with dense clouds, such as in circumstellar bubbles, supernova remnants, superbubbles and galactic winds.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2013

Ram pressure stripping of the hot gaseous haloes of galaxies using the k-epsilon sub-grid turbulence model

We perform three dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the ram pressure stripping of the hot extended gaseous halo of a massive galaxy using the k-epsilon sub-grid turbulence model at Mach numbers 0.9, 1.1 and 1.9. The k-epsilon model is used to simulate high Reynolds number flows by increasing the transport coefficients in regions of high turbulence. We find that the initial, instantaneous stripping is the same whether or not the k-epsilon model is implemented and is in agreement with the results of other studies. However the use of the k-epsilon model leads to five times less gas remaining after stripping by a supersonic flow has proceeded for 10 Gyr, which is more consistent with what simple analytic calculations indicate. Hence the continual Kelvin-Helmholtz stripping plays a significant role in the ram pressure stripping of the haloes of massive galaxies. To properly account for this, simulations of galaxy clusters will require the use of sub-grid turbulence models

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

The Responses of Magnetically Sub-Critical Cores to Shocks

An ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) code with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) was used to investigate the interactions of fast-mode shocks with self-gravitating, isothermal cores with mass-to-flux ratios that are somewhat below the minimum value required for gravitational collapse. We find that shock focussing produces colliding flows along the field lines that generate very high densities, even for relatively weak shocks. Self-gravity plays only a minor role in determining the highest density that is reached, but it does play a role in the subsequent evolution. The densities at comparable times differ by a factor of a few for shocks initially propagating perpendicularly or obliquely to the magnetic field in the ambient medium.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2013

Convergence of AMR and SPH simulations - I. Hydrodynamical resolution and convergence tests

We compare the results for a set of hydrodynamical tests performed with the AMR finite volume code, MG and the SPH code, SEREN. The test suite includes shock tube tests, with and without cooling, the non-linear thin-shell instability and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. The main conclusions are : (i) the two methods converge in the limit of high resolution and accuracy in most cases. All tests show good agreement when numerical effects (e.g. discontinuities in SPH) are properly treated. (ii) Both methods can capture adiabatic shocks and well-resolved cooling shocks perfectly well with standard prescriptions. However, they both have problems when dealing with under-resolved cooling shocks, or strictly isothermal shocks, at high Mach numbers. The finite volume code only works well at 1st order and even then requires some additional artificial viscosity. SPH requires either a larger value of the artificial viscosity parameter, alpha_AV, or a modified form of the standard artificial viscosity term using the harmonic mean of the density, rather than the arithmetic mean. (iii) Some SPH simulations require larger kernels to increase neighbour number and reduce particle noise in order to achieve agreement with finite volume simulations. However, this is partly due to the need to reduce noise that can corrupt the growth of small-scale perturbations. In contrast, instabilities seeded from large-scale perturbations do not require more neighbours and hence work well with standard SPH formulations and converge with the finite volume simulations. (iv) For purely hydrodynamical problems, SPH simulations take an order of magnitude longer to run than finite volume simulations when running at equivalent resolutions, i.e. when they both resolve the underlying physics to the same degree. This requires about 2-3 times as many particles as the number of cells.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2012

Sputtering in oblique C-type shocks

We present the first results for the sputtering of grain mantles and cores obtained with self-consistent multifluid hydromagnetic models of C-type shocks propagating through dusty media. The threshold shock speed for mantle sputtering is about 10 km/s and is independent of density. The mantles are completely vapourised in shocks with speeds of 20-25 km/s. At such shock speeds core sputtering commences and gas-phase SiO forms. Core destruction is not total in any C-type shock because grains are not completely destroyed in shocks with speeds near the minimum speeds at which J-type shocks appear. Due to the density-dependence of the critical shock speed for this transition, higher gas-phase SiO fractional abundances are produced behind shocks propagating in lower density gas. For shock speeds near the threshold speeds for both core and mantle sputtering, sputtering is much greater for shock velocities at smaller angles relative to the upstream magnetic field. At higher shock speeds, the angular variation is still present but less pronounced.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Magnetic Fields and Star Formation

Research performed in the 1950s and 1960s by Leon Mestel on the roles of magnetic fields in star formation established the framework within which he and other key figures have conducted subsequent investigations on the subject. This short tribute to Leon contains a brief summary of some, but not all, of his ground breaking contributions in the area. It also mentions of some of the relevant problems that have received attention in the last few years. The coverage is not comprehensive, and the authors have drawn on their own results more and touched more briefly on those of others than they would in a normal review. Theirs is a personal contribution to the issue honouring Leon, one of the truly great gentlemen, wits, and most insightful of astrophysicists.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2012

Numerical simulations of shocks encountering clumpy regions

We present numerical simulations of the adiabatic interaction of a shock with a clumpy region containing many individual clouds. Our work incorporates a sub-grid turbulence model which for the first time makes this investigation feasible. We vary the Mach number of the shock, the density contrast of the clouds, and the ratio of total cloud mass to inter-cloud mass within the clumpy region. Cloud material becomes incorporated into the flow. This "mass-loading" reduces the Mach number of the shock, and leads to the formation of a dense shell. In cases in which the mass-loading is sufficient the flow slows enough that the shock degenerates into a wave. The interaction evolves through up to four stages: initially the shock decelerates; then its speed is nearly constant; next the shock accelerates as it leaves the clumpy region; finally it moves at a constant speed close to its initial speed. Turbulence is generated in the post-shock flow as the shock sweeps through the clumpy region. Clouds exposed to turbulence can be destroyed more rapidly than a similar cloud in an "isolated" environment. The lifetime of a downstream cloud decreases with increasing cloud-to-intercloud mass ratio. We briefly discuss the significance of these results for starburst superwinds and galaxy evolution.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2011

Cosmic Rays and Radiative Instabilities

In the absence of magnetic fields and cosmic rays, radiative cooling laws with a range of dependences on temperature affect the stability of interstellar gas. For about four and a half decades, astrophysicists have recognised the importance of the thermal instablity for the formation of clouds in the interstellar medium. Even in the past several years, many papers have concerned the role of the thermal instability in the production of molecular clouds. About three and a half decades ago, astrophysicists investigating radiative shocks noticed that for many cooling laws such shocks are unstable. Attempts to address the effects of cosmic rays on the stablity of radiative media that are initially uniform or that have just passed through shocks have been made. The simplest approach to such studies involves the assumption that the cosmic rays behave as a fluid. Work based on such an approach is described. Cosmic rays have no effect on the stability of initially uniform, static media with respect to isobaric perturbations, though they do affect the stability of such media with respect to isentropic perturbations. The effect of cosmic rays on the stability of radiative shocked media depends greatly on the efficiency of the conversion of energy in accelerated cosmic rays into thermal energy in the thermalized fluid. If that efficiency is low, radiative cooling makes weak shocks propagating into upstream media with low cosmic-ray pressures more likely to be cosmic-ray dominated than adiabatic shocks of comparable strength. The cosmic-ray dominated shocks do not display radiative overstability. Highly efficient conversion of cosmic-ray energy into thermal energy leads shocked media to behave as they do when cosmic rays are absent.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2010

Shock-triggered formation of magnetically-dominated clouds. II. Weak shock-cloud interaction in three dimensions

To understand the formation of a magnetically dominated molecular cloud from an atomic cloud, we study the interaction of a weak, radiative shock with a magnetised cloud. The thermally stable warm atomic cloud is initially in static equilibrium with the surrounding hot ionised gas. A shock propagating through the hot medium then interacts with the cloud. We follow the dynamical evolution of the shocked cloud with a time-dependent ideal magnetohydrodynamic code. By performing the simulations in 3D, we investigate the effect of different magnetic field orientations including parallel, perpendicular and oblique to the shock normal. We find that the angle between the shock normal and the magnetic field must be small to produce clouds with properties similar to observed molecular clouds.

astro-ph.GA↗