The influence of the cloud virial parameter on the initial mass function
Sajay Sunny Mathew, Christoph Federrath, Amit Seta
arXiv:2410.13137v2 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: Crucial for star formation is the interplay between gravity and turbulence. The observed cloud virial parameter, $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}$, which is the ratio of twice the turbulent kinetic energy to the gravitational energy, is found to vary significantly in different environments, where the scatter among individual star-forming clouds can exceed an order of magnitude. Therefore, a strong dependence of the initial mass function (IMF) on $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}$ may challenge the notion of a universal IMF. To determine the role of $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}$ on the IMF, we compare the star-particle mass functions obtained in high-resolution magnetohydrodynamical simulations including jet and heating feedback, with $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}=0.0625$, $0.125$, and $0.5$. We find that varying $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}$ from $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}sim0.5$ to $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}arXiv:2410.13137v2 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: Crucial for star formation is the interplay between gravity and turbulence. The observed cloud virial parameter, $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}$, which is the ratio of twice the turbulent kinetic energy to the gravitational energy, is found to vary significantly in different environments, where the scatter among individual star-forming clouds can exceed an order of magnitude. Therefore, a strong dependence of the initial mass function (IMF) on $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}$ may challenge the notion of a universal IMF. To determine the role of $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}$ on the IMF, we compare the star-particle mass functions obtained in high-resolution magnetohydrodynamical simulations including jet and heating feedback, with $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}=0.0625$, $0.125$, and $0.5$. We find that varying $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}$ from $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}sim0.5$ to $alpha_{mathrm{vir}}