SIMULATIONS OF UNEQUAL BINARY COLLISIONS EMBEDDED IN A TURBULENT GAS CLOUD FAR FROM A MASSIVE GRAVITATIONAL CENTER

Abstract

We simulate the collapse of a turbulent gas cloud, in which we choose two sub-clouds. A translational velocity $\vec{r}_L$ or $\vec{r}_R$ is added, so that the sub-clouds move towards each other to collide. The radius and pre-collision velocity of the sub-clouds are chosen to be unequal, and both head-on and oblique collisions are considered. The simulations are all calibrated to have the same total mass and initial energy ratio α = 0.16, which is defined as the ratio of thermal energy to gravitational energy. We compare low-β models to a high-β models, where β is defined as the ratio of kinetic energy to gravitational energy. Finally, we consider the turbulent cloud to be under the gravitational influence of an object located far enough, in order to approximate the tidal effects by means of an azimuthal velocity Vcir added to the cloud particles apart from the translational and turbulent velocities mentioned above. We compare a low-Vcir model with a high-Vcir one.