Magneto-hydrodynamic Simulations of a Jet Drilling an HI Cloud: Shock Induced Formation of Molecular Clouds and Jet Breakup

TL;DR

This study uses magnetohydrodynamical simulations to explore how jets interact with HI clouds, leading to shock-induced molecular cloud formation and jet disruption, providing insights into observed phenomena near the W50 nebula.

Contribution

It introduces detailed MHD simulations that incorporate cooling effects to explain molecular cloud formation and jet breakup in jet-HI cloud interactions.

Findings

Cold dense sheath forms around the jet-HI interface.

Molecular clouds can develop in the cold sheath region.

Jet disruption occurs due to vortex-induced wave reflections.

Abstract

The formation mechanism of the jet-aligned CO clouds found by NANTEN CO observations is studied by magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations taking into account the cooling of the interstellar medium. Motivated by the association of the CO clouds with the enhancement of HI gas density, we carried out MHD simulations of the propagation of a supersonic jet injected into the dense HI gas. We found that the HI gas compressed by the bow shock ahead of the jet is cooled down by growth of the cooling instability triggered by the density enhancement. As a result, cold dense sheath is formed around the interface between the jet and the HI gas. The radial speed of the cold, dense gas in the sheath is a few km/s almost independent of the jet speed. Molecular clouds can be formed in this region. Since the dense sheath wrapping the jet reflects waves generated in the cocoon, the jet is strongly perturbed by the vortices of the warm gas in the cocoon, which breaks up the jet and forms a secondary shock in the HI-cavity drilled by the jet. The particle acceleration at the shock can be the origin of radio and X-ray filaments observed near the eastern edge of W50 nebula surrounding the galactic jet source SS433.