Formation of massive, dense cores by cloud–cloud collisions

Abstract

Abstract We performed sub-parsec (∼ 0.014 pc) scale simulations of cloud–cloud collisions of two idealized turbulent molecular clouds (MCs) with different masses in the range of (0.76–2.67) × 10$^{4}\,M_{\odot }$ and with collision speeds of 5–30 km s−1. Those parameters are larger than in Takahira, Tasker, and Habe (2014, ApJ, 792, 63), in which study the colliding system showed a partial gaseous arc morphology that supports the NANTEN observations of objects indicated to be colliding MCs using numerical simulations. Gas clumps with density greater than 10−20 g cm−3 were identified as pre-stellar cores and tracked through the simulation to investigate the effects of the mass of colliding clouds and the collision speeds on the resulting core population. Our results demonstrate that the smaller cloud property is more important for the results of cloud–cloud collisions. The mass function of formed cores can be approximated by a power-law relation with an index γ = −1.6 in slower cloud–cloud collisions (v ∼ 5 km s−1), and is in good agreement with observation of MCs. A faster relative speed increases the number of cores formed in the early stage of collisions and shortens the gas accretion phase of cores in the shocked region, leading to the suppression of core growth. The bending point appears in the high-mass part of the core mass function and the bending point mass decreases with increase in collision speed for the same combination of colliding clouds. The higher-mass part of the core mass function than the bending point mass can be approximated by a power law with γ = −2–−3 that is similar to the power index of the massive part of the observed stellar initial mass function. We discuss implications of our results for the massive-star formation in our Galaxy.