EPoS Contribution
EPoS Contribution
Formation of stellar clusters in Galactic flows

Romas Smilgys
U St Andrews, St Andrews, GB
We investigate the triggering of star formation and the formation of stellar clusters in molecular clouds that form as the ISM passes through spiral shocks. We use the Lagrangian nature of SPH simulations to trace how the star forming gas is gathered into self-gravitating cores that collapse to form stars. We find that the large-scale flows are necessary to produce the dense clouds where gravitational collapse and star formation occur. Local gravitational collapse requires densities in excess of n>103 cm-3 which occur on size scales of ~1 pc for low-mass star forming regions (M<100 Msol), and up to sizes approaching 10 pc for higher-mass regions (M>103 Msol). Star formation in the 250 pc region lasts throughout the 5 Myr timescale of the simulation and produces stellar clusters up to several 104 Msol with half-mass radii of 1-2 pc. These clusters grow through accreting both gas and stars. The hierarchical merging process also results in significant age spreads of up to several Myr.
Caption: One of the forming stellar clusters. White points show sink particles and orange contours show gas column density of all gas in the region (left panel) and cluster forming gas only (right panel).
Collaborators:
I.A. Bonnell, U St Andrews, GB
Suggested Session: Cluster Formation