Cloud properties across spatial scales in simulations of the interstellar medium

• Verfasst von: Colman, Tine [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Brucy, Noé [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Girichidis, Philipp [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Glover, Simon [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Benedettini, Milena [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Soler, Juan D. [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Tress, Robin G. [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Traficante, Alessio [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Hennebelle, Patrick [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Klessen, Ralf S. [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Molinari, Sergio [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Miville-Deschênes, Marc-Antoine [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Cloud properties across spatial scales in simulations of the interstellar medium
• Verf.angabe: Tine Colman, Noé Brucy, Philipp Girichidis, Simon C.O. Glover, Milena Benedettini, Juan D. Soler, Robin G. Tress, Alessio Traficante, Patrick Hennebelle, Ralf S. Klessen, Sergio Molinari, and Marc-Antoine Miville-Deschênes
• E-Jahr: 2024
• Jahr: June 2024
• Umfang: 29 S.
• Illustrationen: Illustrationen
• Fussnoten: Online veröffentlicht: 7. Juni 2024 ; Gesehen am 03.02.2025
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Astronomy and astrophysics
• Ort Quelle: Les Ulis : EDP Sciences, 1969
• Jahr Quelle: 2024
• Band/Heft Quelle: 686(2024) vom: Juni, Artikel-ID A155, Seite 1-29
• ISSN Quelle: 1432-0746
• DOI: doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202348983
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• K10plus-PPN: 1916147887

Abstract

Context: Molecular clouds (MCs) are structures of dense gas in the interstellar medium (ISM) that extend from ten to a few hundred parsecs and form the main gas reservoir available for star formation. Hydrodynamical simulations of a varying complexity are a promising way to investigate MCs evolution and their properties. However, each simulation typically has a limited range in resolution and different cloud extraction algorithms are used, which complicates the comparison between simulations. Aims: In this work, we aim to extract clouds from different simulations covering a wide range of spatial scales. We compare their properties, such as size, shape, mass, internal velocity dispersion, and virial state. Methods: We applied the HOP cloud detection algorithm on (M)HD numerical simulations of stratified ISM boxes and isolated galactic disk simulations that were produced using FLASH, RAMSES, and AREPO. Results: We find that the extracted clouds are complex in shape, ranging from round objects to complex filamentary networks in all setups. Despite the wide range of scales, resolution, and sub-grid physics, we observe surprisingly robust trends in the investigated metrics. The mass spectrum matches in the overlap between simulations without rescaling and with a high-mass power-law index of −1 for logarithmic bins of mass, in accordance with theoretical predictions. The internal velocity dispersion scales with the size of the cloud as σ ∝ R0.75 for large clouds (R ≳ 3 pc). For small clouds we find larger σ compared to the power-law scaling, as seen in observations, which is due to supernova-driven turbulence. Almost all clouds are gravitationally unbound with the virial parameter scaling as αvir ∝ M−04, which is slightly flatter compared to observed scaling but in agreement given the large scatter. We note that the cloud distribution towards the low-mass end is only complete if the more dilute gas is also refined, rather than only the collapsing regions.