Ionization-induced star formation - I. The collect-and-collapse model: Ionization-induced star formation

We conduct smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of the ‘collect-and-collapse’ scenario for star formation triggered by an expanding H ii region. We simulate the evolution of a spherical uniform molecular cloud with an ionizing source at its centre. The gas in the cloud is self-gravitating, although the cloud is prevented from globally collapsing. We find that the shell driven by the H ii re...