Connecting Scales of Galactic Star Formation in Theory and Observation
The energy balance of infrared dark clouds from tenths to tens parsec scales
Date Submitted
2017-04-14 11:24:47
Nicolas Peretto
Mathilde Gaudel (CEA Saclay), Fabien Louvet (Universidad de Chile), Gary Fuller (University of Manchester), Alessio Traficante (INAF Rome), Ana Duarte Cabral (Cardiff University)
Cardiff University
The relative importance of gravity, turbulence, and magnetic pressure in molecular clouds determines how quickly a cloud will evolve, and how efficiently it will form stars. Different star formation theories predict very different energy balance as a function of spatial scales, from quasi-equilibrium state on all scales, to a switch from turbulent to gravity-driven evolution from large to smaller scales. Here, I present a recent study that aims at computing the virial ratio of 27 infrared dark clouds, from tenths of parsec scales using the N2H+(1-0) optically thin dense gas tracer, to tens of parsec scales using 13CO(1-0). This evolution of the virial ratio as a function of scales shows common trends between clouds, reaching high values (~5) on tens of parsec scales, then decreasing down to sub-viral values on parsec scales, to finally increase to virial ratio values of ~1 at sub-parsec scales. We discuss these results in the context of the dynamical evolution of star-forming clouds in the Galaxy.
Schedule
id
Thursday
date time
09:00 - 10:30
09:00
Abstract
The energy balance of infrared dark clouds from tenths to tens parsec scales