Star-forming environments in smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics simulations I: clump extraction and properties

Abstract

ABSTRACT What is the nature of a star-forming clump? Observations reveal these to be chaotic environments being modified and influenced by many physical processes. However, numerical simulations often define these initial star-forming clumps to be idealized objects. In this paper, we define and analyse 109 star-forming clumps extracted from our previous low-mass star cluster simulations. To define a clump, we identify all the gas in a simulation that ever becomes bound to or accreted onto a star, then follow the gas backwards in time until it decreases to a critical density. This gas and its neighbouring gas are defined as our star-forming clump. Our clumps span a mass range of 0.15 ≲ M/M⊙ ≲ 10.2, while the density range within each clump spans 2–4 orders of magnitude. The gas density distribution is not smooth, indicating that it is highly structured. The clumps are turbulent, with no coherent rotation. Independent of the initial magnetic field strength of the parent cloud, all clumps yield a similar range of field strengths. The clump magnetic field is ordered but not reflective of the initial field geometry of the parent cloud. In general, most clump properties have a slight trend with clump mass but are independent of (or only very weakly dependent on) the properties of the parent cloud. We conclude that stars are born from a wide variety of environments and there is not a single universal star-forming clump.