Rapid Formation of Molecular Clouds and Stars in the Solar Neighborhood

Abstract

We show how molecular clouds in the solar neighborhood might be formed and produce stars rapidly enough to explain stellar population ages, building on results from numerical simulations of the turbulent interstellar medium and general considerations of molecular gas formation. Observations of both star-forming regions and young, gas-free stellar associations indicate that most nearby molecular clouds form stars only over a short time span before dispersal; large-scale flows in the diffuse interstellar medium have the potential for forming clouds sufficiently rapidly and for producing stellar populations with ages much less than the lateral crossing times of their host molecular clouds. We identify four important factors for understanding rapid star formation and short cloud lifetimes. First, much of the accumulation and dispersal of clouds near the solar circle might occur in the atomic phase; only the high-density portion of a cloud's life cycle is spent in the molecular phase, thus helping to limit molecular cloud "lifetimes." Second, once a cloud achieves a high enough column density to form H 2 and CO, gravitational forces become larger than typical interstellar pressure forces; thus, star formation can follow rapidly upon molecular gas formation and turbulent dissipation in limited areas of each cloud complex. Third, typical magnetic fields are not strong enough to prevent rapid cloud formation and gravitational collapse. Fourth, rapid dispersal of gas by newly formed stars, passing shock waves, and reduction of shielding by a small expansion of the cloud after the first events of star formation might limit the length of the star formation epoch and the lifetime of a cloud in its molecular state. This picture emphasizes the importance of large-scale boundary conditions for understanding molecular cloud formation and implies that star formation is a highly dynamic, rather than quasi-static, process and that the low Galactic star formation rate is due to low efficiency rather than slowed collapse in local regions.