Paper detail

Evolution of Prolate Molecular Clouds at Hii Boundaries: II. Formation of BRCs of asymmetrical morphology

A systematic investigation on the evolution of a prolate cloud at an Hii boundary is conducted using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) in order to understand the mechanism for a variety of irregular morphological structures found at the boundaries of various Hii regions. The prolate molecular clouds in this investigation are set with their semi-major axes at inclinations between 0 and 90 degrees to a plane parallel ionizing radiation flux. A set of 4 parameters, the number density n, the ratio of major to minor axis gamma, the inclination angle phi and the incident flux F_EUV, are used to define the initial state of the simulated clouds. The dependence of the evolution of a prolate cloud under Radiation Driven Implosion (RDI) on each of the four parameters is investigated. It is found that: i) in addition to the well studied standard type A, B or C Bright Rimmed Clouds (BRCs), many other types such as asymmetrical BRCs, filamentary structures and irregular horse-head structures could also be developed at Hii boundaries with only simple initial conditions; ii) the final morphological structures are very sensitive to the 4 initial parameters, especially to the initial density and the inclination; iii) The previously defined ionizing radiation penetration depth can still be used as a good indicator of the final morphology. Based on the simulation results, the efficiency of the RDI triggered star formation from clouds of different initial conditions is also estimated. Finally a unified mechanism for the various morphological structures found in many different Hii boundaries is suggested.