Massive Prestellar Cores in Radiation-magneto-turbulent Simulations of Molecular Clouds

TL;DR

This study uses advanced radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic simulations to explore the formation, fragmentation, and accretion processes of massive prestellar cores within giant molecular clouds, revealing new insights into high-mass star formation.

Contribution

First realistic initial conditions for core collapse simulations; identifies two fragmentation modes and details disk stability and star formation mechanisms.

Findings

Massive cores form near the disk center, converting nearly all gas into stars.

Disks around high-mass stars are supported by magnetic and turbulent pressures.

HII regions remain trapped or are displaced, affecting ionization and feedback.

Abstract

We simulate the formation and collapse of prestellar cores at few-AU resolution in a set of radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) using the grid-based code RAMSES-RT. We adopt, for the first time to our best knowledge, realistic initial/boundary conditions by zooming-in onto individual massive prestellar cores within the GMC. We identify two distinct modes of fragmentation: "quasi-spherical" and "filamentary". In both modes the fragments eventually become embedded in a quasi-steady accretion disk or toroid with radii ~ 500-5000 AU and opening angles $H/R \sim 0.5-1$. The disks/toroids are Toomre stable but the accreted pre-existing fragments are found orbiting the outer disk, appearing as disk fragmentation. Each core converts nearly 100 percent of the gas mass into a few massive stars forming near the disk center. Large and massive disks around high-mass stars are supported by magnetic pressure in the outer disk, at radii >200-1000 AU, and turbulent pressure in the inner disk. The most massive core accretes several times more mass than its initial mass, forming a (proto)star cluster of 8 massive stars enshrouded by a toroid, suggesting a competitive accretion scenario for ultra-high-mass star formation. We also find that the HII regions produced by a single massive star remain trapped in the dense circumstellar disks for a few hundred kiloyears, while the dynamic motions of massive stars in wide binaries or multiple systems displace the stars from the densest parts of the disk, allowing UV radiation to escape producing steady or pulsating bipolar HII regions.