Filament formation via collision-induced magnetic reconnection - formation of a star cluster

Shuo Kong; David Whitworth; Rowan J. Smith; Erika T. Hamden

doi:10.1093/mnras/stac2932

Filament formation via collision-induced magnetic reconnection - formation of a star cluster

Shuo Kong^*, David Whitworth, Rowan J. Smith, Erika T. Hamden

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

A collision-induced magnetic reconnection (CMR) mechanism was recently proposed to explain the formation of a filament in the Orion A molecular cloud. In this mechanism, a collision between two clouds with antiparallel magnetic fields produces a dense filament due to the magnetic tension of the reconnected fields. The filament contains fiber-like sub-structures and is confined by a helical magnetic field. To show whether the dense filament is capable of forming stars, we use the AREPO code with sink particles to model star formation following the formation of the CMR-filament. First, the CMR-filament formation is confirmed with AREPO. Secondly, the filament is able to form a star cluster after it collapses along its main axis. Compared to the control model without magnetic fields, the CMR model shows two distinctive features. First, the CMR-cluster is confined to a factor of ∼4 smaller volume. The confinement is due to the combination of the helical field and gravity. Secondly, the CMR model has a factor of ∼2 lower star formation rate. The slower star formation is again due to the surface helical field that hinders gas inflow from larger scales. Mass is only supplied to the accreting cluster through streamers.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	4679–4695
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume	517
Issue number	4
Early online date	18 Oct 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac2932
Publication status	Published - Dec 2022

Keywords

Magnetic fields
Magnetic reconnection
MHD
Methods: numerical
Stars: formation
ISM: clouds

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10.1093/mnras/stac2932

Kong-2022-Filament-formation-MNRAS-517-4-4679
Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac2932.
Final published version, 11.6 MB

https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.04934

Cite this

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title = "Filament formation via collision-induced magnetic reconnection - formation of a star cluster",

abstract = "A collision-induced magnetic reconnection (CMR) mechanism was recently proposed to explain the formation of a filament in the Orion A molecular cloud. In this mechanism, a collision between two clouds with antiparallel magnetic fields produces a dense filament due to the magnetic tension of the reconnected fields. The filament contains fiber-like sub-structures and is confined by a helical magnetic field. To show whether the dense filament is capable of forming stars, we use the AREPO code with sink particles to model star formation following the formation of the CMR-filament. First, the CMR-filament formation is confirmed with AREPO. Secondly, the filament is able to form a star cluster after it collapses along its main axis. Compared to the control model without magnetic fields, the CMR model shows two distinctive features. First, the CMR-cluster is confined to a factor of ∼4 smaller volume. The confinement is due to the combination of the helical field and gravity. Secondly, the CMR model has a factor of ∼2 lower star formation rate. The slower star formation is again due to the surface helical field that hinders gas inflow from larger scales. Mass is only supplied to the accreting cluster through streamers.",

keywords = "Magnetic fields, Magnetic reconnection, MHD, Methods: numerical, Stars: formation, ISM: clouds",

author = "Shuo Kong and David Whitworth and Smith, {Rowan J.} and Hamden, {Erika T.}",

note = "Funding: RJS gratefully acknowledges an STFC Ernest Rutherford fellowship (grant ST/N00485X/1) and HPC from the Durham DiRAC supercomputing facility (grants ST/P002293/1, ST/R002371/1, ST/S002502/1, and ST/R000832/1.",

year = "2022",

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doi = "10.1093/mnras/stac2932",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Filament formation via collision-induced magnetic reconnection - formation of a star cluster

AU - Kong, Shuo

AU - Whitworth, David

AU - Smith, Rowan J.

AU - Hamden, Erika T.

N1 - Funding: RJS gratefully acknowledges an STFC Ernest Rutherford fellowship (grant ST/N00485X/1) and HPC from the Durham DiRAC supercomputing facility (grants ST/P002293/1, ST/R002371/1, ST/S002502/1, and ST/R000832/1.

PY - 2022/12

Y1 - 2022/12

N2 - A collision-induced magnetic reconnection (CMR) mechanism was recently proposed to explain the formation of a filament in the Orion A molecular cloud. In this mechanism, a collision between two clouds with antiparallel magnetic fields produces a dense filament due to the magnetic tension of the reconnected fields. The filament contains fiber-like sub-structures and is confined by a helical magnetic field. To show whether the dense filament is capable of forming stars, we use the AREPO code with sink particles to model star formation following the formation of the CMR-filament. First, the CMR-filament formation is confirmed with AREPO. Secondly, the filament is able to form a star cluster after it collapses along its main axis. Compared to the control model without magnetic fields, the CMR model shows two distinctive features. First, the CMR-cluster is confined to a factor of ∼4 smaller volume. The confinement is due to the combination of the helical field and gravity. Secondly, the CMR model has a factor of ∼2 lower star formation rate. The slower star formation is again due to the surface helical field that hinders gas inflow from larger scales. Mass is only supplied to the accreting cluster through streamers.

AB - A collision-induced magnetic reconnection (CMR) mechanism was recently proposed to explain the formation of a filament in the Orion A molecular cloud. In this mechanism, a collision between two clouds with antiparallel magnetic fields produces a dense filament due to the magnetic tension of the reconnected fields. The filament contains fiber-like sub-structures and is confined by a helical magnetic field. To show whether the dense filament is capable of forming stars, we use the AREPO code with sink particles to model star formation following the formation of the CMR-filament. First, the CMR-filament formation is confirmed with AREPO. Secondly, the filament is able to form a star cluster after it collapses along its main axis. Compared to the control model without magnetic fields, the CMR model shows two distinctive features. First, the CMR-cluster is confined to a factor of ∼4 smaller volume. The confinement is due to the combination of the helical field and gravity. Secondly, the CMR model has a factor of ∼2 lower star formation rate. The slower star formation is again due to the surface helical field that hinders gas inflow from larger scales. Mass is only supplied to the accreting cluster through streamers.

KW - Magnetic fields

KW - Magnetic reconnection

KW - MHD

KW - Methods: numerical

KW - Stars: formation

KW - ISM: clouds

U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stac2932

DO - 10.1093/mnras/stac2932

M3 - Article

SN - 0035-8711

VL - 517

SP - 4679

EP - 4695

JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

IS - 4

ER -

Filament formation via collision-induced magnetic reconnection - formation of a star cluster

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