Fragmentation of Elongated Cylindrical Clouds
Abstract
Using 3D hydrodynamical simulations, we study the fragmentation of uniform, isothermal, elongated molecular clouds, which are slowly rotating around an axis perpendicular to their elongation. We argue that this process could result in the formation of binary and multiple stars. This new method for forming binary stars can explain widely separated binaries with large eccentricities and various mass ratios. At relatively low Jeans numbers Jo (the ratio of the binding energies to thermal energies), a simple binary system is formed. For higher J0, multiple fragmentation occurs between the binary fragments, forming a multiple system. This spontaneous additional fragmentation is induced by rotation. The addition of an angular momentum component parallel to the axis of elongation complicates this scenario. At low J0, a simple binary is still formed. At higher Jo, multiple fragmentation no longer occurs between the binary fragments but instead the binary fragments themselves can fragment through an intermediary bar stage, or through an intermediary fragment-disk stage.
- Publication:
-
Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica
- Pub Date:
- November 1993
- Bibcode:
- 1993RMxAA..27..161M
- Keywords:
-
- HYDRODYNAMICS;
- ISM: CLOUDS;
- ISM: KINEMATICS AND DYNAMICS;
- STARS: FORMATION