EPoS Contribution
EPoS Contribution
The tidal Jeans length

Javier Ballesteros-Paredes
IRyA-UNAM, Morelia, MX
The Jeans length has been used to estimate whether a cloud or core may collapse. In its simplest form, only the thermal support is considered. In its modified form, the velocity dispersion of non-thermal motions are also included. However, in presence of other physical ingredients, as a tidal gravitational potential, it should also be modified. In this talk I will discuss the Jeans vector, i.e., the Jeans length in terms of a not necessarily isotropic gravitational potential, and how it can allow us to estimate (i) the further evolution of clouds and cores, or conversely (ii) what are the physical ingredients that have been playing in the past, to build up the present structure of clouds and cores. I will argue furthermore that it may help to estimate the peak of the IMF in current models.
Caption: The total content of a molecular cloud/cloud core, may depend on the external gravitational potential, and thus, so its Jeans length.
Collaborators:
Gazol, IRyA-UNAM, MX
Suggested Session: Galactic Dynamics