Hydrodynamic simulations of an isolated star-forming gas cloud in the Virgo cluster

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the evolution and survivability of star-forming gas clouds in the Virgo cluster, providing insights into their lifetimes, properties, and star formation processes.

Contribution

It introduces detailed simulations including star formation and feedback, revealing the longevity, morphology, and dynamics of gas clouds in a cluster environment, with direct comparison to observed systems.

Findings

Cold gas survives for about 1 Gyr with high fractions.

Simulated clouds become symmetric and pressure-confined after 1 Gyr.

Star formation peaks early and declines over time due to supernova feedback.

Abstract

We present a suite of three-dimensional, high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations that follow the evolution of a massive (10^7 M_sun) pressure confined, star-forming neutral gas cloud moving through a hot intra-cluster medium (ICM). The main goal of the analysis is to get theoretical insight into the lifetimes and evolution of stellar systems like the recently discovered star-forming cloud SECCO~1 in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, but it may be of general interest for the study of the star-forming gas clumps that are observed in the tails of ram pressure stripped galaxies. Building upon a previous, simple simulation, we explored the effect of different relative velocity of the cloud and larger temperature of the ICM, as well as the effect of the cloud self-gravity. Moreover, we performed a simulation including star-formation and stellar feedback, allowing for a first time a direct comparison with the observed properties of the stars in the system. The survivability of the cold gas in the simulated clouds is granted on timescales of the order of 1 Gyr, with final cold gas fractions generally $>0.75$. In all cases, the simulated systems end up, after 1 Gyr of evolution, as symmetric clouds in pressure equilibrium with the external hot gas. We also confirm that gravity played a negligible role at the largest scales on the evolution of the clouds. In our simulation with star formation, star formation begins immediately, it peaks at the earliest times and decreases monotonically with time. Inhomogeneous supernova explosions are the cause of an asymmetric shape of the gas cloud, facilitating the development of instabilities and the decrease of the cold gas fraction.