Investigating thermal evolution of the self-gravitating one dimensional molecular cloud by smoothed particle hydrodynamics

TL;DR

This study examines how ambipolar diffusion heating influences thermal instability in self-gravitating, one-dimensional molecular clouds using improved two-fluid smoothed particle hydrodynamics, revealing potential roles in star and planet formation.

Contribution

It introduces an improved two-fluid SPH model to analyze thermal evolution and instability in self-gravitating molecular clouds considering ambipolar diffusion heating.

Findings

Thermal instability persists inhomogeneities with large density contrast.

Inhomogeneities may lead to star-forming dense cores.

Results suggest a role in planet formation within collapsing clouds.

Abstract

The heating of the ion-neutral (or ambipolar) diffusion may affect the thermal phases of the molecular clouds. We present an investigation on the effect of this heating mechanism in the thermal instability of the molecular clouds. A weakly ionized one dimensional slab geometry, which is allowed for self-gravity and ambipolar diffusion, is chosen to study its thermal phases. We use the thermodynamic evolution of the slab to obtain the regions where slab cloud becomes thermally unstable. We investigate this evolution using the model of ambipolar diffusion with two-fluid smoothed particle hydrodynamics, as outlined by Hosking & Whitworth. Firstly, some parts of the technique are improved to test the pioneer works on behavior of the ambipolar diffusion in an isothermal self-gravitating slab. Afterwards, the improved two-fluid technique is used for thermal evolution of the slab. The results show that the thermal instability may persist inhomogeneities with a large density contrast at the intermediate parts of the cloud. We suggest that this feature may be responsible for the planet formation in the intermediate regions of a collapsing molecular cloud and/or may also be relevant to the formation of star forming dense cores in the clumps.