A ram-pressure threshold for star formation

TL;DR

This paper identifies a critical ram-pressure threshold that determines the onset of vigorous star formation in molecular clouds, linking physical conditions like density, velocity, and extinction to star formation activity.

Contribution

It introduces a universal ram-pressure criterion for star formation, connecting flow properties to the formation of dense, gravitationally unstable condensations in turbulent molecular clouds.

Findings

Star formation occurs when ram-pressure exceeds ~4×10^-11 dyne.

Threshold corresponds to molecular hydrogen column density ~4×10^21 cm^-2.

Characteristic scales for star-forming filaments and cores are ~0.1 pc diameter and ~1 solar mass.

Abstract

In turbulent fragmentation, star formation occurs in condensations created by converging flows. The condensations must be sufficiently massive, dense and cool to be gravitationally unstable, so that they start to contract; {\it and} they must then radiate away thermal energy fast enough for self-gravity to remain dominant, so that they continue to contract. For the metallicities and temperatures in local star forming clouds, this second requirement is only met robustly when the gas couples thermally to the dust, because this delivers the capacity to radiate across the full bandwidth of the continuum, rather than just in a few discrete spectral lines. This translates into a threshold for vigorous star formation, which can be written as a minimum ram-pressure Pcrit ~ 4 10^-11 dyne. Pcrit is independent of temperature, and corresponds to flows with molecular hydrogen number-density nH2 and velocity v satisfying nH2 v^2 > 800 cm^-3 (km/s)^2. This in turn corresponds to a minimum molecular hydrogen column-density for vigorous star formation, NH2crit ~ 4 10^21 cm^-2 (SIGMAcrit ~ 100 MSun pc^-2), and a minimum visual extinction AVcrit ~ 9. The characteristic diameter and line-density for a star-forming filament when this threshold is just exceeded -- a sweet spot for local star formation regions -- are 2Rfil ~ 0.1 pc and mufil ~ 13 MSun pc^-2. The characteristic diameter and mass for a prestellar core condensing out of such a filament are 2Rcore ~ 0.1 pc, and Mcore ~ MSun. We also show that fragmentation of a shock-compressed layer is likely to commence while the convergent flows creating the layer are still ongoing, and we stress that, under this circumstance, the phenomenology and characteristic scales for fragmentation of the layer are fundamentally different from those derived traditionally for pre-existing layers.