Can Clump Properties Determine Core Distribution in Star Formation? A Statistical Analysis of Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations

Abstract Dense cores, the progenitors of stars, are in sub-pc scale and fragmented from pc-scale clumps. However, it is still unclear how strongly the fragmentation process is affected by the properties of the host clumps and how these properties influence the core distribution observed in recent millimeter (mm) and sub-mm observations. To systematically investigate this relation, we employed magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of convergent flows to generate a large sample of clumps and analyzed their properties using various techniques. Alignment parameters were used to quantify core distribution, while energy terms were calculated to assess the influence of gravity, magnetic fields, and turbulence. We found the core distribution only exhibiting weak correlations between alignment parameters and clump properties. For an individual clump, turbulence is believed to significantly contribute to these features by inducing nonhomologous collapse and ongoing fragmentation. Nevertheless, for the entire population, more compact core distributions are observed due to the dominance of gravity. Overall, these factors suggest that clump properties are not sufficient to accurately determine core distribution.