http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.0024
In this paper we develop a simple analytical criterion to investigate the role of the environment on the onset of star formation. We will consider the main external agents that influence the star formation (i.e. ram pressure, tidal interaction, Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities) in a spherical galaxy moving through an external environment. The theoretical framework developed here has direct applications to the cases of dwarf galaxies in galaxy clusters and dwarf galaxies orbiting our Milky Way system, as well as any primordial gas-rich cluster of stars orbiting within its host galaxy. We develop an analytic formalism to solve the fluid dynamics equations in a non-inertial reference frame mapped with spherical coordinates. The two-fluids instability at the interface between a stellar system and its surrounding hotter and less dense environment is related to the star formation processes through a set of differential equations. The solution presented here is quite general, allowing us to investigate most kinds of orbits allowed in a gravitationally bound system of stars in interaction with a major massive companion. We present an analytical criterion and some simple numerical and observational applications to elucidate the dependence of star formation in a stellar system on its surrounding environment. This criterion predicts the threshold value for the onset of star formation in a mass vs. size space for any orbit of interest. Moreover, we make evident for the first time the theoretical dependencies of the different instability phenomena acting on a system in a fully analytical way.
S. Pasetto, M. Cropper, Y. Fujita, et. al.
Wed, 2 Jul 14
39/72
Comments: submitted to A&A