Phase transition time scales for cooling and isothermal media

Details Phase transition time scales for cooling and isothermal media Phase transition time scales for cooling and isothermal media

Nov 1990

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1990apj...363..197c&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 363, Nov. 1, 1990, p. 197-205.

Statistics

Computation

8

Cooling Flows (Astrophysics), Interstellar Matter, Molecular Clouds, Star Formation, Computational Astrophysics, Milky Way Galaxy, Stellar Structure, Stochastic Processes

Scientific paper

The time scales of the first stage (referred to as 'phase transition') of evolution of a gas cloud that is destined to collapse under the action of an external low-amplitude disturbance, are investigated. Using the analytic model of Tohline et al. (1987) and the mathematics of stochastic processes in physical systems, an analytic expression is derived for the phase-transition characteristic time, tau(pt), of a sub-Jeans-mass gas cloud. The ratio of tau(pt) to the dynamical time of the diffuse cloud, tau(ff), depends on the mass of the cloud, the energy in the existing disturbance, and an adiabatic exponent Gamma. The behavior of the tau(pt)/tau(ff) ratio for Gamma between 0 and 4/3 is analyzed. The results are discussed as applied to the structure and evolution of the ISM and to the first stages of protostellar collapse.

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