Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2005-09-20
Astrophys.J.637:384-391,2006
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
21 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal
Scientific paper
10.1086/498228
We investigate the core mass distribution (CMD) resulting from numerical models of turbulent fragmentation of molecular clouds. In particular we study its dependence on the sonic root-mean-square Mach number $\Ms$. We analyze simulations with $\Ms$ ranging from 1 to 15 to show that, as $\Ms$ increases, the number of cores increases as well while their average mass decreases. This stems from the fact that high-Mach number flows produce many and strong shocks on intermediate to small spatial scales, leading to a highly-fragmented density structure. We also show that the CMD from purely turbulent fragmentation does not follow a single power-law, but it may be described by a function that changes continuously its shape, probably more similar to a log-normal function. The CMD in supersonic turbulent flows does not have a universal slope, and as consequence, cast some doubt on attempts to directly relate the CMD to a universal Initial Mass Function.
Ballesteros-Paredes Javier
Gazol Adriana
Jappsen Anne-Katharina
Kim Jongsoo
Klessen Ralf S.
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