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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 721 records · Page 40
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DOE OSTI2013

HEAVY DUST OBSCURATION OF z = 7 GALAXIES IN A COSMOLOGICAL HYDRODYNAMIC SIMULATION

Hubble Space Telescope observations with the Wide Field Camera 3/Infrared reveal that galaxies at z ∼ 7 have very blue ultraviolet (UV) colors, consistent with these systems being dominated by young stellar populations with moderate or little attenuation by dust. We investigate UV and optical properties of the high-z galaxies in the standard cold dark matter model using a high-resolution adaptive mesh refinement cosmological hydrodynamic simulation. For this purpose, we perform panchromatic three-dimensional dust radiative transfer calculations on 198 galaxies of stellar mass 5 × 10{sup 8}-3 × 10{sup 10} M{sub ☉} with three parameters: the dust-to-metal ratio, the extinction curve, and the fraction of directly escaped light from stars (f{sub esc}). Our stellar mass function is found to be in broad agreement with Gonzalez et al., independent of these parameters. We find that our heavily dust-attenuated galaxies (A{sub V} ∼ 1.8) can also reasonably match modest UV-optical colors, blue UV slopes, as well as UV luminosity functions, provided that a significant fraction (∼10%) of light directly escapes from them. The observed UV slope and scatter are better explained with a Small-Magellanic-Cloud-type extinction curve, whereas a Milky-Way-type curve also predicts blue UV colors due to the 2175 Å bump. We expect that upcoming observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array will be able to test this heavily obscured model.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS FEEDBACK AND ENTROPY INJECTION IN GALAXY CLUSTER CORES

We make the first estimate of non-gravitational energy profiles in galaxy cluster cores (and beyond) based on observational data. Comparing the observed entropy profiles within r{sub 500}, from the Representative XMM-Newton Cluster Structure Survey to simulated base entropy profiles without feedback from both adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) non-radiative simulations, we estimate the amount of additional non-gravitational energy, E{sub ICM}, contained in the intracluster medium (ICM), as well as the total energy feedback, E{sub Feedback}, from active galactic nuclei (AGNs; the central AGNs in most cases) into the clusters. The total feedback energy scales with the mean spectroscopic temperature as E{sub Feedback}∝T{sub sp}{sup 2.52±0.08} and E{sub Feedback}∝T{sub sp}{sup 2.17±0.11} for the SPH and AMR baseline profiles. The mean non-gravitational energy per particle within r{sub 500} remaining in the ICM after energy lost during cooling is ε{sub ICM} = 2.8 ± 0.8 keV for the SPH theoretical relation and ε{sub ICM} = 1.7 ± 0.9 keV for the AMR theoretical relation. We use the NRAO/VLA Sky Survey source catalog to determine the radio luminosity, L{sub R} , at 1.4 GHz of the central source(s) of our sample. For T{sub sp} > 3 keV, the E{sub Feedback} correlates with L{sub R} , although with different normalization for cool-core and non-cool-core clusters. We show that AGNs could provide a significant portion of the feedback.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

UNDERSTANDING THE UNUSUAL X-RAY EMISSION PROPERTIES OF THE MASSIVE, CLOSE BINARY WR 20a: A HIGH ENERGY WINDOW INTO THE STELLAR WIND INITIATION REGION

The problem of explaining the X-ray emission properties of the massive, close binary WR 20a is discussed. Located near the cluster core of Westerlund 2, WR 20a is composed of two nearly identical Wolf-Rayet stars of 82 and 83 solar masses orbiting with a period of only 3.7 days. Although Chandra observations were taken during the secondary optical eclipse, the X-ray light curve shows no signs of a flux decrement. In fact, WR 20a appears slightly more X-ray luminous and softer during the optical eclipse, opposite to what has been observed in other binary systems. To aid in our interpretation of the data, we compare with the results of hydrodynamical simulations using the adaptive mesh refinement code Mezcal which includes radiative cooling and a radiative acceleration force term. It is shown that the X-ray emission can be successfully explained in models where the wind-wind collision interface in this system occurs while the outflowing material is still being accelerated. Consequently, WR 20a serves as a critical test-case for how radiatively driven stellar winds are initiated and how they interact. Our models not only procure a robust description of current Chandra data, which cover the orbital phases between 0.3 and 0.6, but also provide detailed predictions over the entire orbit.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

The long lives of giant clumps and the birth of outflows in gas-rich galaxies at high redshift

Star-forming disk galaxies at high redshift are often subject to violent disk instability, characterized by giant clumps whose fate is yet to be understood. The main question is whether the clumps disrupt within their dynamical timescale (≤50 Myr), like the molecular clouds in today's galaxies, or whether they survive stellar feedback for more than a disk orbital time (≈300 Myr) in which case they can migrate inward and help building the central bulge. We present 3.5-7 pc resolution adaptive mesh refinement simulations of high-redshift disks including photoionization, radiation pressure, and supernovae feedback. Our modeling of radiation pressure determines the mass loading and initial velocity of winds from basic physical principles. We find that the giant clumps produce steady outflow rates comparable to and sometimes somewhat larger than their star formation rate, with velocities largely sufficient to escape the galaxy. The clumps also lose mass, especially old stars, by tidal stripping, and the stellar populations contained in the clumps hence remain relatively young (≤200 Myr), as observed. The clumps survive gaseous outflows and stellar loss, because they are wandering in gas-rich turbulent disks from which they can reaccrete gas at high rates compensating for outflows and tidal stripping, overall keeping realistic and self-regulated gaseous and stellar masses. The outflow and accretion rates have specific timescales of a few 10{sup 8} yr, as opposed to rapid and repeated dispersion and reformation of clumps. Our simulations produce gaseous outflows with velocities, densities, and mass loading consistent with observations, and at the same time suggest that the giant clumps survive for hundreds of Myr and complete their migration to the center of high-redshift galaxies. These long-lived clumps are gas-dominated and contain a moderate mass fraction of stars; they drive inside-out disk evolution, thickening, spheroid growth, and fueling of the central black hole.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

On the origin of the Hubble sequence: I. Insights on galaxy color migration from cosmological simulations

An analysis of more than 3000 galaxies resolved at better than 114 h{sup –1} pc at z = 0.62 in a 'LAOZI' cosmological adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic simulation is performed and insights are gained on star formation quenching and color migration. The vast majority of red galaxies are found to be within three virial radii of a larger galaxy at the onset of quenching, when the specific star formation rate experiences the sharpest decline to fall below ∼10{sup –2}-10{sup –1} Gyr{sup –1} (depending on the redshift). Thus, we shall call this mechanism 'environment quenching', which encompasses satellite quenching. Two physical processes are largely responsible: Ram pressure stripping first disconnects the galaxy from the cold gas supply on large scales, followed by a longer period of cold gas starvation taking place in a high velocity-dispersion environment, in which during the early part of the process, the existing dense cold gas in the central region (≤10 kpc) is consumed by in situ star formation. On average, quenching is found to be more efficient (i.e., a larger fraction of galaxies being quenched) but not faster (i.e., the duration being weakly dependent on the environment) in a denser environment. Throughout this quenching period and the ensuing one in the red sequence, galaxies follow nearly vertical tracks in the color-stellar mass diagram. In contrast, individual galaxies of all masses grow most of their stellar masses in the blue cloud, prior to the onset of quenching, and progressively more massive blue galaxies with already relatively older mean stellar ages continue to enter the red sequence. Consequently, correlations among observables of red galaxies—such as the age-mass relation— are largely inherited from their blue progenitors at the onset of quenching. While the color makeup of the entire galaxy population strongly depends on the environment, which is a direct result of environment quenching, physical properties of blue galaxies as a subpopulation show little dependence on the environment. A variety of predictions from the simulation are shown to be in accordance with extant observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

The matryoshka run: A Eulerian refinement strategy to study the statistics of turbulence in virialized cosmic structures

We study the statistical properties of turbulence driven by structure formation in a massive merging galaxy cluster at redshift z = 0. The development of turbulence is ensured as the largest eddy turnover time is much shorter than the Hubble time independent of mass and redshift. We achieve a large dynamic range of spatial scales through a novel Eulerian refinement strategy where the cluster volume is refined with progressively finer uniform nested grids during gravitational collapse. This provides an unprecedented resolution of 7.3 h {sup –1} kpc across the virial volume. The probability density functions of various velocity-derived quantities exhibit the features characteristic of fully developed compressible turbulence observed in dedicated periodic-box simulations. Shocks generate only 60% of the total vorticity within the R {sub vir}/3 region and 40% beyond that. We compute second- and third-order longitudinal and transverse structure functions for both solenoidal and compressional components in the cluster core, virial region, and beyond. The structure functions exhibit a well-defined inertial range of turbulent cascade. The injection scale is comparable to the virial radius but increases toward the outskirts. Within R {sub vir}/3, the spectral slope of the solenoidal component is close to Kolmogorov's, but for the compressional component is substantially steeper and close to Burgers's; the flow is mostly solenoidal and statistically rigorously, which is consistent with fully developed homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. Small-scale anisotropy appears due to numerical artifact. Toward the virial region, the flow becomes increasingly compressional, the structure functions become flatter, and modest genuine anisotropy appear particularly close to the injection scale. In comparison, mesh adaptivity based on Lagrangian refinement and the same finest resolution leads to a lack of turbulent power on a small scales, an excess thereof on large scales, and unreliable density-weighted structure functions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fragmentation in dusty low-metallicity star-forming halos

The first stars in the universe, termed Population III, are thought to have been very massive compared to the stars that form in the present epoch. As feedback from the first generation of stars altered the contents of the interstellar medium, the universe switched to a low-mass mode of star formation, which continues in the high-metallicity stars formed in the present era. Several studies have investigated the transition between metal-free and metal-enriched star formation, with tentative evidence being found for a metallicity threshold near 10{sup –3.5} Z {sub ☉} due to atomic and molecular transitions and another threshold near 10{sup –5.5} Z {sub ☉} due to dust. In this work, we simulate the fragmentation of cooling gas in idealized, low-metallicity halos using the adaptive mesh refinement code Enzo. We conduct several simulations of 10{sup 6} M {sub ☉} and 10{sup 7} M {sub ☉} halos at z = 20 in which the metal content, initial rotation, and degree of turbulence are varied in order to study the effect of these properties on gas fragmentation over a range of densities. We find tentative support for the idea of a critical metallicity, but the effect of varying metallicity on the gas we observe is not as dramatic as what has been reported in earlier studies. It is theorized that at lower redshifts with a lower cosmic microwave background temperature, variations in metallicity might have a larger effect on cooling and fragmentation. We find no clear relation between the initial spin or the initial level of turbulence in the halo and the final properties of the gas contained therein. Additionally, we find that the degree to which the Jeans length is refined, the initial density profile of the gas, and the inclusion of deuterium chemistry each have a significant effect on the evolution and fragmentation of the gas in the halo—in particular, we find that at least 64 grid cells are needed to cover the Jeans length in order to properly resolve the fragmentation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

LyMAS: Predicting large-scale Lyα forest statistics from the dark matter density field

We describe Lyα Mass Association Scheme (LyMAS), a method of predicting clustering statistics in the Lyα forest on large scales from moderate-resolution simulations of the dark matter (DM) distribution, with calibration from high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of smaller volumes. We use the 'Horizon-MareNostrum' simulation, a 50 h {sup –1} Mpc comoving volume evolved with the adaptive mesh hydrodynamic code RAMSES, to compute the conditional probability distribution P(F{sub s} |δ {sub s}) of the transmitted flux F{sub s} , smoothed (one-dimensionally, 1D) over the spectral resolution scale, on the DM density contrast δ {sub s}, smoothed (three-dimensionally, 3D) over a similar scale. In this study we adopt the spectral resolution of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) at z = 2.5, and we find optimal results for a DM smoothing length σ = 0.3 h {sup –1} Mpc (comoving). In its simplest form, LyMAS draws randomly from the hydro-calibrated P(F{sub s} |δ {sub s}) to convert DM skewers into Lyα forest pseudo-spectra, which are then used to compute cross-sightline flux statistics. In extended form, LyMAS exactly reproduces both the 1D power spectrum and one-point flux distribution of the hydro simulation spectra. Applied to the MareNostrum DM field, LyMAS accurately predicts the two-point conditional flux distribution and flux correlation function of the full hydro simulation for transverse sightline separations as small as 1 h {sup –1} Mpc, including redshift-space distortion effects. It is substantially more accurate than a deterministic density-flux mapping ({sup F}luctuating Gunn-Peterson Approximation{sup )}, often used for large-volume simulations of the forest. With the MareNostrum calibration, we apply LyMAS to 1024{sup 3} N-body simulations of a 300 h {sup –1} Mpc and 1.0 h {sup –1} Gpc cube to produce large, publicly available catalogs of mock BOSS spectra that probe a large comoving volume. LyMAS will be a powerful tool for interpreting 3D Lyα forest data, thereby transforming measurements from BOSS and other massive quasar absorption surveys into constraints on dark energy, DM, space geometry, and intergalactic medium physics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

The interstellar medium and star formation in local galaxies: Variations of the star formation law in simulations

We use the adaptive mesh refinement code Enzo to model the interstellar medium (ISM) in isolated local disk galaxies. The simulation includes a treatment for star formation and stellar feedback. We get a highly supersonic turbulent disk, which is fragmented at multiple scales and characterized by a multi-phase ISM. We show that a Kennicutt-Schmidt relation only holds when averaging over large scales. However, values of star formation rates and gas surface densities lie close in the plot for any averaging size. This suggests an intrinsic relation between stars and gas at cell-size scales, which dominates over the global dynamical evolution. To investigate this effect, we develop a method to simulate the creation of stars based on the density field from the snapshots, without running the code again. We also investigate how the star formation law is affected by the characteristic star formation timescale, the density threshold, and the efficiency considered in the recipe. We find that the slope of the law varies from ∼1.4 for a free-fall timescale, to ∼1.0 for a constant depletion timescale. We further demonstrate that a power law is recovered just by assuming that the mass of the new stars is a fraction of the mass of the cell m {sub *} = ερ{sub gas}Δx {sup 3}, with no other physical criteria required. We show that both efficiency and density threshold do not affect the slope, but the right combination of them can adjust the normalization of the relation, which in turn could explain a possible bi-modality in the law.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Constrained simulation of the Bullet Cluster

In this work, we report on a detailed simulation of the Bullet Cluster (1E0657-56) merger, including magnetohydrodynamics, plasma cooling, and adaptive mesh refinement. We constrain the simulation with data from gravitational lensing reconstructions and the 0.5-2 keV Chandra X-ray flux map, then compare the resulting model to higher energy X-ray fluxes, the extracted plasma temperature map, Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect measurements, and cluster halo radio emission. We constrain the initial conditions by minimizing the chi-squared figure of merit between the full two-dimensional (2D) observational data sets and the simulation, rather than comparing only a few features such as the location of subcluster centroids, as in previous studies. A simple initial configuration of two triaxial clusters with Navarro-Frenk-White dark matter profiles and physically reasonable plasma profiles gives a good fit to the current observational morphology and X-ray emissions of the merging clusters. There is no need for unconventional physics or extreme infall velocities. The study gives insight into the astrophysical processes at play during a galaxy cluster merger, and constrains the strength and coherence length of the magnetic fields. The techniques developed here to create realistic, stable, triaxial clusters, and to utilize the totality of the 2D image data, will be applicable to future simulation studies of other merging clusters. This approach of constrained simulation, when applied to well-measured systems, should be a powerful complement to present tools for understanding X-ray clusters and their magnetic fields, and the processes governing their formation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Triggering collapse of the presolar dense cloud core and injecting short-lived radioisotopes with a shock wave. III. Rotating three-dimensional cloud cores

A key test of the supernova triggering and injection hypothesis for the origin of the solar system's short-lived radioisotopes is to reproduce the inferred initial abundances of these isotopes. We present here the most detailed models to date of the shock wave triggering and injection process, where shock waves with varied properties strike fully three-dimensional, rotating, dense cloud cores. The models are calculated with the FLASH adaptive mesh hydrodynamics code. Three different outcomes can result: triggered collapse leading to fragmentation into a multiple protostar system; triggered collapse leading to a single protostar embedded in a protostellar disk; or failure to undergo dynamic collapse. Shock wave material is injected into the collapsing clouds through Rayleigh-Taylor fingers, resulting in initially inhomogeneous distributions in the protostars and protostellar disks. Cloud rotation about an axis aligned with the shock propagation direction does not increase the injection efficiency appreciably, as the shock parameters were chosen to be optimal for injection even in the absence of rotation. For a shock wave from a core-collapse supernova, the dilution factors for supernova material are in the range of ∼10{sup –4} to ∼3 × 10{sup –4}, in agreement with recent laboratory estimates of the required amount of dilution for {sup 60}Fe and {sup 26}Al. We conclude that a type II supernova remains as a promising candidate for synthesizing the solar system's short-lived radioisotopes shortly before their injection into the presolar cloud core by the supernova's remnant shock wave.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Escape fraction of ionizing photons during reionization: Effects due to supernova feedback and runaway ob stars

The fraction of hydrogen ionizing photons escaping from galaxies into the intergalactic medium is a critical ingredient in the theory of reionization. We use two zoomed-in, high-resolution (4 pc), cosmological radiation hydrodynamic simulations with adaptive mesh refinement to investigate the impact of two physical mechanisms (supernova, SN, feedback, and runaway OB stars) on the escape fraction (f {sub esc}) at the epoch of reionization (z ≥ 7). We implement a new, physically motivated SN feedback model that can approximate the Sedov solutions at all (from the free expansion to snowplow) stages. We find that there is a significant time delay of about ten million years between the peak of star formation and that of escape fraction, due to the time required for the build-up and subsequent destruction of the star-forming cloud by SN feedback. Consequently, the photon number-weighted mean escape fraction for dwarf galaxies in halos of mass 10{sup 8}-10{sup 10.5} M {sub ☉} is found to be 〈f{sub esc}〉∼11%, although instantaneous values of f {sub esc} > 20% are common when star formation is strongly modulated by the SN explosions. We find that the inclusion of runaway OB stars increases the mean escape fraction by 22% to 〈f{sub esc}〉∼14%. As SNe resulting from runaway OB stars tend to occur in less dense environments, the feedback effect is enhanced and star formation is further suppressed in halos with M{sub vir}≳10{sup 9} M{sub ⊙} in the simulation with runaway OB stars compared with the model without them. While both our models produce enough ionizing photons to maintain a fully ionized universe at z ≤ 7 as observed, a still higher amount of ionizing photons at z ≥ 9 appears necessary to accommodate the high observed electron optical depth inferred from cosmic microwave background observations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

On the reversal of star formation rate-density relation at z = 1: Insights from simulations

Recent surveys have found a reversal of the star formation rate (SFR)-density relation at z = 1 from that at z = 0, while the sign of the slope of the color-density relation remains unchanged. We use adaptive mesh refinement cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of a 21 × 24 × 20 h {sup –3} Mpc{sup 3} region to examine the SFR-density and color-density relations of galaxies at z = 0 and z = 1. The local environmental density is defined by the dark matter mass in spheres of radius 1 h {sup –1} Mpc, and we probe two decades of environmental densities. Our simulations produce a large increase of SFR with density at z = 1, as in the Elbaz et al. observations. We also find a significant evolution to z = 0, where the SFR-density relation is much flatter. The simulated color-density relation is consistent from z = 1 to z = 0, in agreement with observations. We find that the increase in SFR with local density at z = 1 is due to a growing population of star-forming galaxies in higher-density environments. At z = 0 and z = 1 both the SFR and cold gas mass are correlated with the galaxy halo mass, and therefore the correlation between median halo mass and local density is an important cause of the SFR-density relation at both redshifts. However, at z = 0 the local density on 1 h {sup –1} Mpc scales affects galaxy SFRs as much as halo mass. Finally, we find indications that while at z = 0 high-density environments depress galaxy SFRs, at z = 1 high-density environments tend to increase SFRs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Modeling active galactic nucleus feedback in cool-core clusters: The balance between heating and cooling

We study the long-term evolution of an idealized cool-core galaxy cluster under the influence of momentum-driven active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback using three-dimensional high-resolution (60 pc) adaptive mesh refinement simulations. The feedback is modeled with a pair of precessing jets whose power is calculated based on the accretion rate of the cold gas surrounding the supermassive black hole (SMBH). The intracluster medium first cools into clumps along the propagation direction of the jets. As the jet power increases, gas condensation occurs isotropically, forming spatially extended structures that resemble the observed Hα filaments in Perseus and many other cool-core clusters. Jet heating elevates the gas entropy, halting clump formation. The cold gas that is not accreted onto the SMBH settles into a rotating disk of ∼10{sup 11} M {sub ☉}. The hot gas cools directly onto the disk while the SMBH accretes from its innermost region, powering the AGN that maintains a thermally balanced state for a few Gyr. The mass cooling rate averaged over 7 Gyr is ∼30 M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1}, an order of magnitude lower than the classic cooling flow value. Medium resolution simulations produce similar results, while in low resolution runs, the cluster experiences cycles of gas condensation and AGN outbursts. Owing to its self-regulating mechanism, AGN feedback can successfully balance cooling with a wide range of model parameters. Our model also produces cold structures in early stages that are in good agreement with the observations. However, the long-lived massive cold disk is unrealistic, suggesting that additional physical processes are still needed.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Modeling active galactic nucleus feedback in cool-core clusters: The formation of cold clumps

We perform high-resolution (15-30 pc) adaptive mesh simulations to study the impact of momentum-driven active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback in cool-core clusters, focusing in this paper on the formation of cold clumps. The feedback is jet-driven with an energy determined by the amount of cold gas within 500 pc of the super-massive black hole. When the intracluster medium in the core of the cluster becomes marginally stable to radiative cooling, with the thermal instability to the free-fall timescale ratio t{sub TI}/t{sub ff} < 3-10, cold clumps of gas start to form along the propagation direction of the AGN jets. By tracing the particles in the simulations, we find that these cold clumps originate from low entropy (but still hot) gas that is accelerated by the jet to outward radial velocities of a few hundred km s{sup –1}. This gas is out of hydrostatic equilibrium and so can cool. The clumps then grow larger as they decelerate and fall toward the center of the cluster, eventually being accreted onto the super-massive black hole. The general morphology, spatial distribution, and estimated Hα morphology of the clumps are in reasonable agreement with observations, although we do not fully replicate the filamentary morphology of the clumps seen in the observations, probably due to missing physics.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

On the role of ambient environments in the collapse of Bonnor-Ebert spheres

We consider the interaction between a marginally stable Bonnor-Ebert (BE) sphere and the surrounding ambient medium. In particular, we explore how the infall from an evolving ambient medium can trigger the collapse of the sphere using three-dimensional adaptive mesh refinement simulations. We find the resulting collapse dynamics to vary considerably with ambient density. In the highest ambient density cases, infalling material drives a strong compression wave into the cloud. It is the propagation of this wave through the cloud interior that triggers the subsequent collapse. For lower ambient densities, we find the main trigger of collapse to be a quasistatic adjustment of the BE sphere to gravitational settling of the ambient gas. In all cases, we find that the classic 'outside-in' collapse mode for super-critical BE spheres is recovered before a protostar (i.e., sink particle) forms. Our work supports scenarios in which BE dynamics naturally begins with either a compression wave or infall dominated phase, and only later assumes the usual outside-in collapse behavior.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Collapse and fragmentation of magnetic molecular cloud cores with the Enzo AMR MHD code. II. Prolate and oblate cores

We present the results of a large suite of three-dimensional models of the collapse of magnetic molecular cloud cores using the adaptive mesh refinement code Enzo2.2 in the ideal magnetohydrodynamics approximation. The cloud cores are initially either prolate or oblate, centrally condensed clouds with masses of 1.73 or 2.73 M {sub ☉}, respectively. The radial density profiles are Gaussian, with central densities 20 times higher than boundary densities. A barotropic equation of state is used to represent the transition from low density isothermal phases, to high density optically thick phases. The initial magnetic field strength ranges from 6.3 to 100 μG, corresponding to clouds that are strongly to marginally supercritical, respectively, in terms of the mass to magnetic flux ratio. The magnetic field is initially uniform and aligned with the clouds' rotation axes, with initial ratios of rotational to gravitational energy ranging from 10{sup –4} to 0.1. Two significantly different outcomes for collapse result: (1) formation of single protostars with spiral arms, and (2) fragmentation into multiple protostar systems. The transition between these two outcomes depends primarily on the initial magnetic field strength, with fragmentation occurring for mass to flux ratios greater than about 14 times the critical ratio for prolate clouds. Oblate clouds typically fragment into several times more clumps than prolate clouds. Multiple, rather than binary, system formation is the general rule in either case, suggesting that binary stars are primarily the result of the orbital dissolution of multiple protostar systems.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

dynamical evolution of an ultra-relativistic fireball colliding with a freely expanding gas

We investigate the hydrodynamical evolution of an ultra-relativistic fireball colliding with a freely expanding gas. The hydrodynamical interaction of the fireball and the gas results in the formation of a geometrically thin shell. We study the dynamical evolution of the shell analytically and perform a numerical simulation equipped with adaptive mesh refinement to investigate the internal structure of the shell. The shocked gas can give rise to bright emission in the X-ray and gamma-ray energy range. We propose that the breakout emission from the forward shock and the photospheric emission from the reverse-shocked fireball contribute to early gamma-ray emission from gamma-ray bursts.

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