Filamentary Molecular Cloud Formation via Collision-induced Magnetic Reconnection in a Cold Neutral Medium

Abstract We have investigated the possibility of molecular cloud formation via the collision-induced magnetic reconnection (CMR) mechanism of the cold neutral medium (CNM). Two atomic gas clouds with conditions typical of the CNM were set to collide at the interface of reverse magnetic fields. The cloud–cloud collision triggered magnetic reconnection and produced a giant 20 pc filamentary structure that was not seen in the control models without CMR. The cloud, with rich fiber-like substructures, developed a fully molecular spine at 5 Myr. Radiative transfer modeling of dust emission at far-infrared wavelengths showed that the middle part of the filament contained dense cores over a span of 5 pc. Some of the cores were actively forming stars and typically exhibited both connecting fibers in dust emission and high-velocity gas in CO line emission, indicative of active accretion through streamers. Supersonic turbulence was present in and around the CMR filament due to inflowing gas moving at supersonic velocities in the collision midplane. The shocked gas was condensed and transported to the main filament piece by piece by reconnected fields, making the filament and star formation a bottom-up process. Instead of forming a gravitationally bounded cloud that then fragments hierarchically (top-down) and forms stars, the CMR process creates dense gas pieces and magnetically transports them to the central axis to constitute the filament. Since no turbulence is manually driven, our results suggest that CMR is capable of self-generating turbulence. Finally, the resulting helical field should show field reversal on both sides of the filament from most viewing angles.