Growth of Massive Molecular Cloud Filament by Accretion Flows. II. New Mechanism to Support a Supercritical Filament Against Radial Collapse

Abstract Observations indicate that dense molecular filamentary clouds are sites of star formation. The filament width determines the most unstable scale for self-gravitational fragmentation and influences the stellar mass. Therefore, constraining the evolution of filaments and the origin of their properties is important for understanding star formation. Although some observations show a universal width of 0.1 pc, many theoretical studies predict the contraction of thermally supercritical filaments (>17 M ⊙ pc −1 ) due to radial collapse. Through nonideal magnetohydrodynamics simulations with ambipolar diffusion, we explore the formation and evolution of filaments via slow-shock instability at the front of accretion flows. We reveal that ambipolar diffusion allows the gas in the filament to flow across the magnetic fields around the shock front, forming dense blobs behind the concave points of the shock front. The blobs transfer momentum that drives internal turbulence. We name this mechanism “the STORM”(Slow-shock-mediated Turbulent flOw Reinforced by Magnetic diffusion). The persistence and efficiency of the turbulence inside the filament are driven by the magnetic field and the ambipolar diffusion effect, respectively. The STORM mechanism sustains the width even when the filament reaches very large line masses (∼100 M ⊙ pc −1 ).