Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: The propagation of a shock wave into an interstellar medium is investigated by two-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic calculation with cooling, heating, and thermal conduction. We present results of the high-resolution, two-dimensional calculations to follow the fragmentation that results from thermal instability in a shock-compressed layer. We find that the geometrically thin cooling layer behind the shock front fragments into small cloudlets. The cloudlets have supersonic velocity dispersion in the warm neutral medium, in which the fragments are embedded as cold condensations. The fragments tend to coalesce and become larger clouds.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
DOI: 10.1086/338978
Authors: Hiroshi Koyama, Shu-ichiro Inutsuka
Institutions: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Kyoto University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2020660384