Competitive Accretion in Sheet Geometry and the Stellar IMF

Details Competitive Accretion in Sheet Geometry and the Stellar IMF Competitive Accretion in Sheet Geometry and the Stellar IMF

Jun 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aspc..440..107h&link_type=abstract

UP2010: Have Observations Revealed a Variable Upper End of the Initial Mass Function? ASP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 440. Pro

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We report a set of numerical experiments addressing the applicability of competitive accretion to explain the high-mass end of the stellar initial mass function in a sheet geometry with shallow gravitational potential, in contrast to most previous simulations which have assumed formation in a cluster gravitational potential. Our flat cloud geometry is motivated by models of molecular cloud formation due to large-scale flows in the interstellar medium. The experiments consisted of smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of gas accretion onto sink particles formed rapidly from Jeans-unstable dense clumps placed randomly in the finite sheet. We considered both clumps of equal mass and gaussian distributions of masses, and either uniform or spatially-varying gas densities. The sink mass function develops a power law tail at high masses, with dN/dlogM ∝ M-Γ. The accretion rates of individual sinks follow M ∝ M2 at high masses; this results in a continual flattening of the slope of the mass function towards an asymptotic form Γ˜1 (where the Salpeter slope is Γ = 1.35). The asymptotic limit is most rapidly reached when starting from a relatively broad distribution of initial sink masses. Although these simulations are highly idealized, the results suggest that competitive accretion may be relevant in a wider variety of environments than previously considered.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Competitive Accretion in Sheet Geometry and the Stellar IMF does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Competitive Accretion in Sheet Geometry and the Stellar IMF, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Competitive Accretion in Sheet Geometry and the Stellar IMF will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-911196