Interstellar Cloud Formation through Aggregation of Cold Blobs in a Two‐Phase Gas Mixture

Abstract

We propose a new formation scenario for interstellar clouds through the aggregation of dense cold blobs (phase II [PII]), which drift in a diffuse warm medium (phase I [PI]). We examine how important it is that there exist numerous PII blobs when the properties of such a two-phase flow are studied. First, we solve a one-dimensional shock-tube problem and find that the shock wave in the mixture is considerably damped because of the drag force between the two phases. This is because the PII blobs are left behind the shock front, since their inertia is larger than that of PI, thus suppressing large spatial variations of PI gas via the drag force. The PII blobs thus play the role of anchors. Therefore, mass aggregation by shocks may be ineffective in a two-phase medium. However, the PII blobs can still aggregate through a kind of fluid dynamical instability. We next suppose that the PI gas is accelerated upward by shocks against downward gravity, while the PII blobs are at rest because of balance between the drag force due to PI and gravity. If we put a positive perturbation in the number density of PII blobs, the upward PI flow above the perturbation is decelerated by the enhanced drag force, and the velocity difference between PI and PII is thereby reduced. Then the PII blobs above the perturbation are accelerated downward, since the gravity on PII now dominates the reduced drag force. As a result, the blobs will fall onto this perturbed region, and this region becomes denser and denser. This is the mechanism of the instability. Therefore, we expect efficient cloud formation by this instability in spiral arms, even when galactic shocks are extremely damped.