Substellar fragmentation in self-gravitating fluids with a major phase transition

TL;DR

This paper investigates how phase transitions in cold interstellar gases can lead to the formation of substellar bodies like comets and planetoids through gravitational instability, using theoretical analysis and molecular dynamics simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation approach combining phase transition physics with gravity to explain substellar object formation in the interstellar medium.

Findings

Fluids with phase transitions are gravitationally unstable regardless of gravitational strength.

Formation of two types of substellar bodies: gravity-dominated planetoids and force-dominated comets.

Small H2 clumps can form at temperatures up to 600K due to combined phase transition and gravity.

Abstract

The existence of substellar cold H2 globules in planetary nebulae and the mere existence of comets suggest that the physics of cold interstellar gas might be much richer than usually envisioned. We study the case of a cold gaseous medium in ISM conditions which is subject to a gas-liquid/solid phase transition. First the equilibrium of general non-ideal fluids is studied using the virial theorem and linear stability analysis. Then the non-linear dynamics is studied by using simulations to characterize the expected formation of solid bodies analogous to comets. The simulations are run with a state of the art molecular dynamics code (LAMMPS). The long-range gravitational forces can be taken into account with short-range molecular forces with finite limited computational resources by using super-molecules, provided the right scaling is followed. The concept of super-molecule is tested with simulations, allowing us to correctly satisfy the Jeans instability criterion for one-phase fluids. The simulations show that fluids presenting a phase transition are gravitationally unstable as well, independent of the strength of the gravitational potential, producing two distinct kinds of sub-stellar bodies, those dominated by gravity ("planetoids") and those dominated by molecular attractive force ("comets"). Observations, formal analysis and computer simulations suggest the possibility of the formation of substellar H2 clumps in cold molecular clouds due to the combination of phase transition and gravity. Fluids presenting a phase transition are gravitationally unstable, independent of the strength of the gravitational potential. Arbitrarily small H2 clumps may form even at relatively high temperatures up to 400 - 600K, according to virial analysis. The combination of phase transition and gravity may be relevant for a wider range of astrophysical situations, such as proto-planetary disks.