Section of
ASTROPHYSICS,
ASTRONOMY
& MECHANICS
Aristotle University
of Thessaloniki
Physics Department
Place: Laboratory of Astronomy, AUTH
Date: Friday 13-12-2019
Time: 13:00 – 14:00
Abstract
In this talk, I will explore the mystery that surrounds the role of
magnetization in the process of star formation, from the creation of
dense gas to the fragmentation of a molecular cloud into cores.
In numerical simulations of colliding supershells, magnetization
suppresses the thermal instability. This delay in the formation of cold
gas can have a crucial effect on the star-forming properties of a
galaxy. On smaller scales, numerical models of molecular cloud
turbulence show dramatically different behavior when they include
magnetic fields. We would expect these differences to lead to very
different distributions of core properties. However, in models of
molecular cloud collapse, we find that structures dominated by the
gravitational contraction in models that include magnetization bear only
small differences to those that do not.
Are our models representative of the actual, physical initial conditions
for molecular cloud collapse? This surprising result demands a wider
exploration of the role of magnetization in star formation, which will
be the basis for a new discussion on the universality of star formation.