Massive star formation via torus accretion: the effect of photoionization feedback

Abstract

The formation of massive stars is a long standing problem. Although a number of theories of massive star formation exist, ideas appear to converge to a disk-mediated accretion scenario. Here we present radiative hydrodynamic simulations of a star accreting mass via a disk embedded in a torus. We use a Monte Carlo based radiation hydrodynamics code to investigate the impact that ionizing radiation has on the torus. Ionized regions in the torus midplane are found to be either gravitationally trapped or in pressure driven expansion depending on whether or not the size of the ionized region exceeds a critical radius. Trapped Hii regions in the torus plane allow accretion to progress, while expanding Hii regions disrupt the accretion torus preventing the central star from aggregating more mass, thereby setting the star's final mass. We obtain constraints for the luminosities and torus densities that lead to both scenarios.

15 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• CMacIonize 2.0: a novel task-based approach to Monte Carlo radiation transfer
• Orientation effect on the ligh curve shape of periodic methanol maser sources
• Modelling of ionising feedback with Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Monte Carlo Radiative Transfer on a Voronoi grid
• Stability of an Ionization Front in Bondi Accretion