Edges versus Bends: Gravitational Accelerations in Filaments (2024)

Undergraduate: Rachel Curran

Faculty Advisor: Fabian Heitsch
Department: Physics and Astronomy

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Filaments are one of the structures of molecular gas in which star formation is commonly observed. Given the standard behavior of a straight filament, essentially a cylinder, it should be the case that stars form mostly at the end of these structures. However, this is not always true, and the reason why is not entirely understood. Filaments with bends have growing accelerations at that point, but it is largely thought that the ends must also be smoothed out for these to become the main sites of star formation. Solving Poisson’s equation for gravity using Fast Fourier Transforms, we examined the gravitational accelerations at the edges and bends of the filament at varying angles and aspect ratios. With these models, we demonstrated that without smoothing, the accelerations at the bends do not win accelerations at the ends of the filament. These results give us a greater understanding of the behavior of these structures, but further testing with end smoothing is needed in order to grasp why star formation is not always at the end of these structures.