Erratum to Star formation triggered by SN explosions: an application to the stellar association of $\beta$Pictoris

TL;DR

This study investigates how supernova remnants can trigger star formation in molecular clouds through simulations and diagrams, and applies findings to the β Pictoris stellar association, assessing the plausibility of supernova-triggered formation.

Contribution

It combines 3-D radiative cooling simulations with a SNR-cloud density diagram to analyze star formation triggers and applies this to the β Pictoris association's origin.

Findings

Numerical results align with the SNR-cloud density diagram.

Star formation plausibly triggered only under specific initial cloud conditions.

The β Pictoris formation scenario is feasible within restricted parameters.

Abstract

In the present study, considering the physical conditions that are relevant interactions between supernova remnants (SNRs) and dense molecular clouds for triggering star formation we have built a diagram of SNR radius versus cloud density in which the constraints above delineate a shaded zone where star formation is allowed. We have also performed fully 3-D radiatively cooling numerical simulations of the impact between SNRs and clouds under different initial conditions in order to follow the initial steps of these interactions. We determine the conditions that may lead either to cloud collapse and star formation or to complete cloud destruction and find that the numerical results are consistent with those of the SNR-cloud density diagram. Finally, we have applied the results above to the $\beta-$ Pictoris stellar association which is composed of low mass Post-T Tauri stars with an age of 11 Myr. It has been recently suggested that its formation could have been triggered by the shock wave produced by a SN explosion localized at a distance of about 62 pc that may have occurred either in the Lower Centaurus Crux (LCC) or in the Upper Centaurus Lupus (UCL) which are both nearby older subgroups of that association (Ortega and co-workers).Using the results of the analysis above we have shown that the suggested origin for the young association at the proposed distance is plausible only for a very restricted range of initial conditions for the parent molecular cloud, i.e., a cloud with a radius of the order of 10 pc, a density of the order of 10$-$20 cm$^{-3}$, and a temperature of the order of 10$-$100 K }.