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Star Formation and the Properties of Giant Molecular Clouds in Global Simulations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2011

Elizabeth J. Tasker  and
Jonathan C. Tan
Elizabeth J. Tasker
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada email: taskere@mcmaster.ca
Jonathan C. Tan
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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Abstract

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We simulated an isolated quiescent Milky Way-type galaxy with a maximum effective resolution of 7.8 pc. Clouds formed in the interstellar medium through gravitational fragmentation and became the sites for star formation. We tracked the evolution of the clouds through 300 Myr in the presence of star formation, photoelectric heating and feedback from Type II supernovae. The cloud mass distribution agreed well with observational results. Feedback suppressed star formation but did not destroy the surrounding cloud. Collisions between clouds were found to be sufficiently frequent to be a significant factor in determining the star formation rate.

Keywords

hydrodynamicsstars: formationISM: cloudsGalaxy: diskISM: structure
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S270: Computational Star Formation , May 2010 , pp. 377 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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