On the effects of solenoidal and compressive turbulence in prestellar cores

Original · EN

We present the results of an ensemble of SPH simulations that follow the evolution of prestellar cores for 0.2 Myr. All the cores have the same mass, and start with the same radius, density profile, thermal and turbulent energy. Our purpose is to explore the consequences of varying the fraction of turbulent energy, δₛol, that is solenoidal, as opposed to compressive; specifically we consider δₛol=1,2/3,1/3,1/9 and0. For each value of δₛol, we follow ten different realisations of the turbulent velocity field, in order also to have a measure of the stochastic variance blurring any systematic trends. With low δₛol(<1/3) filament fragmentation dominates and delivers relatively high mass stars. Conversely, with high values of δₛol(>1/3) disc fragmentation dominates and delivers relatively low mass stars. There are no discernible systematic trends in the multiplicity statistics obtained with different δₛol.