Star Formation and the Properties of Giant Molecular Clouds in Global Simulations

Abstract

Abstract. We simulated an isolated quiescent Milky Way-type galaxy with a maximum effective resolution of 7.8 pc. Clouds formed in the interstellar medium through gravitational fragmentation and became the sites for star formation. We tracked the evolution of the clouds through 300 Myr in the presence of star formation, photoelectric heating and feedback from Type II supernovae. The cloud mass distribution agreed well with observational results. Feedback suppressed star formation but did not destroy the surrounding cloud. Collisions between clouds were found to be sufficiently frequent to be a significant factor in determining the star formation rate.

The structure of H i in galactic discs: simulations versus observations

“…Hence feedback processes are seen to play an important role in the formation of smaller scale structure and its appearance in H i emission. Numerical simulations of the interstellar medium (ISM) in disc galaxies are becoming increasingly sophisticated and can now include the effects of stellar feedback processes (Wada 2008; Shetty & Ostriker 2008; Dobbs, Burkert & Pringle 2011b; Tasker & Tan 2011). At the same time advances are being made in the generation of synthetic observations from simulations (Hennebelle, Audit & Miville‐Deschênes 2007; Douglas et al 2010; Parkin 2011, and references therein).…”

The structure of HI in galactic disks: Simulations vs observations

“…Hence feedback processes are seen to play an important role in the formation of smaller scale structure and its appearance in Hi emission. Numerical simulations of the interstellar medium (ISM) in disk galaxies are becoming increasingly sophisticated and can now include the effects of stellar feedback processes (Wada 2008;Shetty & Ostriker 2008;Dobbs et al 2011b;Tasker & Tan 2011). At the same time advances are being made in the generation of synthetic observations from simulations (Hennebelle et al 2007;Douglas et al 2010;Parkin 2011, and references therein).…”