The dependence of stellar properties on initial cloud density

TL;DR

This study uses radiation hydrodynamical simulations to explore how initial cloud density influences stellar properties, revealing a weak dependence of characteristic stellar mass on density, with implications for star-forming regions.

Contribution

It demonstrates a weak, quantifiable relationship between initial cloud density and stellar mass, extending previous models by including radiative feedback effects.

Findings

Characteristic stellar mass scales as $ ho^{-1/5}$

Distributions of multiple system properties are consistent across densities

Low-density regions resemble observed star-forming regions like Taurus-Auriga

Abstract

We investigate the dependence of stellar properties on the initial mean density of the molecular cloud in which stellar clusters form using radiation hydrodynamical simulations that resolve the opacity limit for fragmentation. We have simulated the formation of three star clusters from the gravitational collapse of molecular clouds whose densities vary by a factor of a hundred. As with previous calculations including radiative feedback, we find that the dependence of the characteristic stellar mass, $M_{\rm c}$, on the initial mean density of the cloud, $\rho$, is weaker than the dependence of the thermal Jeans mass. However, unlike previous calculations, which found no statistically significant variation in the median mass with density, we find a weak dependence approximately of the form $M_{\rm c} \propto \rho^{-1/5}$. The distributions of properties of multiple systems do not vary significantly between the calculations. We compare our results to the result of observational surveys of star-forming regions, and suggest that the similarities between the properties of our lowest density calculation and the nearby Taurus-Auriga region indicate that the apparent excess of solar-type stars observed may be due to the region's low density.