Paper detail

The evolution of the core mass function by gas accretion

We show how the mass function of dense cores (CMF) which results from the gravoturbulent fragmentation of a molecular cloud evolves in time under the effect of gas accretion. Accretion onto the cores leads to the formation of larger numbers of massive cores and to a flattening of the CMF. This effect should be visible in the CMF of star forming regions that are massive enough to contain high mass cores and when comparing the CMF of cores in and off dense filaments which have different environmental gas densities.