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Clustering and dynamic decoupling of dust grains in turbulent molecular clouds
L. Mattsson, , F.A. Gent, B. Villarroel
Published in Oxford University Press
2019
Volume: 483
   
Issue: 4
Pages: 5623 - 5641
Abstract
We present high-resolution (1024 3) simulations of super-/hypersonic isothermal hydrodynamic turbulence inside an interstellar molecular cloud (resolving scales of typically 20-100 au), including a multidisperse population of dust grains, i.e. a range of grain sizes is considered. Due to inertia, large grains (typical radius a ≳ 1.0μm) will decouple from the gas flow, while small grains (al∼ 0.1μm) will tend to better trace the motions of the gas. We note that simulations with purely solenoidal forcing show somewhat more pronounced decoupling and less clustering compared to simulations with purely compressive forcing. Overall, small and large grains tend to cluster, while intermediate-size grains show essentially a random isotropic distribution. As a consequence of increased clustering, the grain-grain interaction rate is locally elevated; but since small and large grains are often not spatially correlated, it is unclear what effect this clustering would have on the coagulation rate. Due to spatial separation of dust and gas, a diffuse upper limit to the grain sizes obtained by condensational growth is also expected, since large (decoupled) grains are not necessarily located where the growth species in the molecular gas is. © 2018 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.
About the journal
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
PublisherOxford University Press
ISSN00358711