Molecular clumps photoevaporation in ionized regions

TL;DR

This paper models the photoevaporation process of molecular clumps exposed to ionizing UV radiation from massive stars and quasars, revealing typical evaporation timescales and the impact on molecular outflow sizes.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed model of molecular clump evolution under ionizing radiation, including shock dynamics and self-shielding, for different astrophysical environments.

Findings

Clumps undergo shock-contraction followed by expansion leading to evaporation.

Evaporation timescales are about 0.01 Myr for stellar environments and 0.1 Myr for quasars.

Photoevaporation likely regulates molecular outflow sizes in quasars.

Abstract

We study the photoevaporation of molecular clumps exposed to a UV radiation field including hydrogen-ionizing photons ($h\nu > 13.6$ eV) produced by massive stars or quasars. We follow the propagation and collision of shock waves inside clumps and take into account self-shielding effects, determining the evolution of clump size and density with time. The structure of the ionization-photodissociation region (iPDR) is obtained for different initial clump masses ($M=0.01 - 10^4\,{\rm M}_\odot$) and impinging fluxes ($G_0=10^2 - 10^5$ in units of the Habing flux). The cases of molecular clumps engulfed in the HII region of an OB star and clumps carried within quasar outflows are treated separately. We find that the clump undergoes in both cases an initial shock-contraction phase and a following expansion phase, which lets the radiation penetrate in until the clump is completely evaporated. Typical evaporation time-scales are $\simeq 0.01$ Myr in the stellar case and 0.1 Myr in the quasar case, where the clump mass is 0.1 ${\rm M}_\odot$ and $10^3\,{\rm M}_\odot$ respectively. We find that clump lifetimes in quasar outflows are compatible with their observed extension, suggesting that photoevaporation is the main mechanism regulating the size of molecular outflows.