James E Dale, Ian A Bonnell
We report on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of the impact
on a turbulent $\sim2\times10^{3}$ M$_{\odot}$ star--forming molecular cloud of
irradiation by an external source of ionizing photons. We find that the
ionizing radiation has a significant effect on the gas morphology, but a less
important role in triggering stars. The rate and morphology of star formation
are largely governed by the structure in the gas generated by the turbulent
velocity field, and feedback has no discernible effect on the stellar initial
mass function. Although many young stars are to be found in dense gas located
near an ionization front, most of these objects also form when feedback is
absent. Ionization has a stronger effect in diffuse regions of the cloud by
sweeping up low--density gas that would not otherwise form stars into
gravitationally--unstable clumps. However, even in these regions, dynamical
interactions between the stars rapidly erase the correlations between their
positions and velocities and that of the ionization front.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.1417
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