The interplay between IRDC Formation and the Birth of Massive Stars

红外黑云（IRDCs）是致密的气体云，被看作是银河面吸收的特征。由于它们的高密度、大质量和低温，irdc被认为是刚刚开始形成恒星的年轻分子云。在这个项目中，我们试图研究通过星系的螺旋激波的气体如何有效地形成irdc，以及这种形成过程对云内演化和未来恒星形成的影响。许多IRDC似乎正在形成大质量恒星，但尚不清楚这是否是IRDC形成的普遍结果。通过对一系列irdc进行数值模拟，我们计划解决这些天体中大质量恒星形成的常见程度。为了实现这些目标，我们将使用尖端的数值技术来跟踪irdc的整个早期生命周期，从漫射ISM的形成到第一批大质量原恒星的形成。通过使用时间依赖的化学网络，我们将准确地捕获局部热力学，自一致地跟踪致密气体中分子的形成，并得出irdc的丰度图。这将使我们能够创建公开可用的模拟综合观测结果，这将在解释来自赫歇尔和ALMA等设施的当前和未来IRDC观测结果时具有相当大的用途。

Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) are dense clouds of gas seen as absorption features against the Galactic plane. Due to their high densities, large masses and low temperatures, IRDCs are thought to be young molecular clouds which are just beginning to form stars. In this project we seek to study how effectively IRDCs are formed from gas that passes through the spiral shock of a galaxy, and the implications of this formation process upon the evolution and future star formation within the cloud. Many IRDCs appear to be forming massive stars, but it is unclear whether this is a ubiquitous outcome of IRDC formation. By performing numerical simulations of a range of IRDCs, we plan to address how common massive star formation is in these objects. In order to achieve these goals, we will use cutting edge numerical techniques to follow the entire early life cycle of the IRDCs, from formation out of the diffuse ISM, to the formation of the first massive protostars. By using a time dependent chemical network we will accurately capture the local thermodynamics, self-consistently follow the formation of the molecules within the dense gas, and derive abundance maps of the IRDCs. This will enable us to create publicly available, synthetic observations of our simulations which will be of considerable use when interpreting the results of current and future IRDC observations from facilities such as Herschel and ALMA.