Radiative feedback in star formation: a novel method for linking SPH and radiation transport

恒星是由巨大的冷尘埃和气体云的引力坍缩形成的。当最初的云崩溃时，它分裂成更小的次云，这些次云也可能分裂。正是这种分裂过程被认为导致了我们在星团中看到的不同恒星质量，与高质量恒星相比，形成了更多的低质量恒星。我们现在有能力用超级计算机模拟从最初的星云到恒星的坍缩过程，但这些计算不包括所谓的辐射传输，即模拟光通过气体及其随后的加热效应。从本质上讲，在目前的模拟中形成的原恒星并不发光。我们希望通过合并两种最先进的计算机代码，将辐射转移纳入坍缩模拟中，其中一种模拟气体的运动，另一种模拟光子通过气体的路径。这将使我们能够在恒星形成时有效地启动它们，使它们能够加热云。我们认为，对这个问题的更复杂的处理将为坍缩和分裂过程提供新的见解，并使我们能够更好地预测我们在宇宙中看到的恒星质量分布。

Stars are formed by the gravitational collapse of enormous clouds of cold dust and gas. As the initial cloud collapses it fragments into smaller sub-clouds, which may in turn also fragment.It is this fragmentation process that is thought to lead to the different stellar masses we see in clusters of stars, with many more low-mass stars being formed compared to high-mass stars.We are now capable of performing supercomputer simulations that follow the collapse from the initial cloud right through to the stars, but these calculations do not include so-called radiation transfer, which simulates that passage of light through the gas and its subsequent heating effects. In essense the protostars that are formed in the current simulations do not shine.We wish to incorporate radiation transfer into the collapse simulations by merging two state-of-the-art computer codes, one of which simulates the motion of the gas, and the other the paths of photons through the gas. This will allow us to effectively turn on the stars as they form, allowing them to heat up the cloud. We think that this more sophisticated treatment of the problem will provide new insight into the collapse and fragmentation process, and enable us to better predict the distributions of stellar masses that we see in the Universe.