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Evolution of Primordial Protostellar Clouds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

K. Omukai
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Kyoto University Kyoto, 606-01, Japan
R. Nishi
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Kyoto University Kyoto, 606-01, Japan
H. Uehara
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Kyoto University Kyoto, 606-01, Japan
H. Susa
Affiliation:
Center for Computational Physics, University of Tsukuba Tsukuba, 305, Japan

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The formation of stars in proto-galactic clouds can be viewed as two step processes i.e. the fragmentation of proto-galactic clouds and evolution of these fragments into stars. We consider here the latter process, the contraction of protosteller clouds (∼ 1M) which consist of primordial gas. We investigate cooling processes by calculating the radiative transfer of H2 rotational/vibrational lines. We consider clouds in hydrostatic equilibrium as initial conditions. Comparing two timescales, the freefall time and the timescale of quasi-static contraction (∼ tcool, the cooling time) of these clouds, we find that as the clouds contract, the ratio of two timescales tff/tqsc, i.e. the efficiency of cooling, becomes larger even under the existence of cold and opaque envelope. Especially for the fragments of primordial filamentary clouds (tff ∼ tqsc initially), they collapse dynamically in the freefall timescale. This efficiency of cooling is utterly peculiar to the line cooling.

Type
III. Galaxy Formation and Evolution
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1999 

References

Omukai, K., Nishi, R., Susa, H. & Uehara, , 1997. in preparation Google Scholar
Uehara, H., Susa, H., Nishi, R., Yamada, M. & Nakamura, T., 1996. Astrophys. J., 473, L95.Google Scholar