Serbian Astronomical Journal (Jan 2009)
Evolution of density perturbations in a cylindrical molecular cloud using smoothed particle hydrodynamics
Abstract
Molecular clouds have a hierarchical structure from few tens of parsecs for giants to few tenth of a parsec for proto-stellar cores. Nowadays, our observational techniques are so advanced that it has become possible to detect the small-scale substructures inside the molecular cores. The question that arises is how these small condensations are formed. In the present research, we study the effect of ambipolar diffusion heating on the ubiquitous perturbations in a molecular cloud and investigate the possibility of converting them to dense substructures. For this purpose, a small azimuthal perturbation is implemented on the density of an axisymmetric two-dimensional cylindrical cloud, and its evolution is simulated by the technique of two-fluid smoothed particle hydrodynamics. The self-gravity is not included and the initial state has uniform density, temperature and magnetic field, parallel to the axis of cylinder. In addition, all perturbed quantities are assumed to depend only on azimuth angle and time. Computer experiments show that if the ambipolar diffusion heating is ignored, the perturbation will be dispersed over the time. Including the heating due to ambipolar diffusion heats the matter in regions adjacent to the perturbation, thus, leading to the transfer of matter into the perturbed area. In this case, the density of perturbations can be increased. Also, the results of simulations show that an increase of the initial magnetic pressure leads to the intensification of difference between density of perturbations and their surroundings (i.e. increasing of density contrast). This effect is due to the direct relationship of the drift velocity to the intensity of the magnetic field and its gradient. Simulations with different initial uniform densities show that the growth of relative density contrast is more clear with a special density. This result can be explained by the intensification of thermal instability in this special density.
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