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| EPoS Contribution |
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Coagulation and fragmentation in molecular clouds
Chris W. Ormel Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany | |
| It is well-known that grains coagulate in protoplanetary disks because of their dense environment. In the cores of molecular clouds the densities are also sufficiently high for grains to cluster together, affecting the observational interpretation of these objects. In a theoretical study, we have recently assessed the importance of coagulation using several state-of-the art numerical models that take full account of the internal structure of the evolving dust particles and, apart from coagulation, accounting also for fragmentation as a collisional outcome. One of our key findings is that, when the core lifetime is sufficiently long, the impact of dust coagulation is significant. On the other hand, if the core lifetime is short (i.e., the free-fall timescale) not much coagulation takes place. I will attempt to connect the results of our study with observational findings regarding the 10 micron silicate extinction feature and the near-IR extinction. | |
| Collaborators: D. Paszun, U. of Amsterdam, Netherlands C. Dominik, U. of Amsterdam, Netherlands X. Tielens, U. of Leiden, Netherlands M. Min, U. of Utrecht, Netherlands J. Steinacker, MPIA, Germany L. Pagani, LERMA, France A. Bacmann, Grenoble |
Key publication
Suggested Session: Cores and Collapse, Molecular Clouds, Turbulence |