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The role of orbital dynamics and cloud-cloud collisions in the formation of giant molecular clouds in global spiral structuresThe role of orbit crowding and cloud-cloud collisions in the formation of GMCs and their organization in global spiral structure is investigated. Both N-body simulations of the cloud system and a detailed analysis of individual particle orbits are used to develop a conceptual understanding of how individual clouds participate in the collective density response. Detailed comparisons are made between a representative cloud-particle simulation in which the cloud particles collide inelastically with one another and give birth to and subsequently interact with young star associations and stripped down simulations in which the cloud particles are allowed to follow ballistic orbits in the absence of cloud-cloud collisions or any star formation processes. Orbit crowding is then related to the behavior of individual particle trajectories in the galactic potential field. The conceptual picture of how GMCs are formed in the clumpy ISMs of spiral galaxies is formulated, and the results are compared in detail with those published by other authors.
Document ID
19870047678
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Roberts, William W., Jr.
(Virginia Univ. Charlottesville, VA, United States)
Stewart, Glen R.
(Virginia, University Charlottesville, United States)
Date Acquired
August 13, 2013
Publication Date
March 1, 1987
Publication Information
Publication: Astrophysical Journal, Part 1
Volume: 314
ISSN: 0004-637X
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Accession Number
87A34952
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF AST-82-04256
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF MCS-84-04459
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAGW-929
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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