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| EPoS Contribution |
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Formation of Molecular Clouds under Tidal Influence -- the Case of Magellanic Bridge
R. Chen MPIfR, Bonn, Germany | |
| We have carried out a mini Mopra CO survey of all massive young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Magellanic Bridge to investigate formation mechanisms of molecular clouds in a low-metallicity, tidally-disrupted environment. This is by far the most unbiased sample to search for star-forming molecular clouds in such environment. In our recent Spitzer study of YSOs in the Magellanic Bridge (Chen et al.\ 2012), we used the complete samples of YSOs in the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Bridge to estimate the probability of finding YSOs at a given HI column density, N(HI). We found that the LMC (not as metal poor and tidally disrupted as the Bridge) has $\sim 3$ times higher probability than the Bridge for N(HI) $> 10\times10{20}$ cm$^{-2}$, but the trend reverses at lower N(HI) (Fig. 1). The reverse trend indicates different formation mechanisms of molecular clouds and stars formed within. We will present the results of the CO survey and assess if colliding flows may be responsible for the increased star formation efficiency at low N(HI) in the Bridge. | |
| Collaborators: R. Indebetouw, NRAO, USA E. Muller, NAOJ, Japan |
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