Multi-scale accretion in dense cloud cores and the delayed formation of massive stars

The formation mechanism of massive stars remains one of the main open problems in astrophysics, in particular the relationship between the mass of the most massive stars, and that of the cores in which they form. Numerical simulations of the formation and evolution of large molecular clouds, within which dense cores and stars form self-consistently, show in general that the cores' masses increase in time, and also that the most massive stars tend to appear later (by a few to several Myr) than lower-mass stars. Here we present an idealized model that incorporates accretion onto the cores as well as onto the stars, in which the core's mass growth is regulated by a “gravitational choking” mechanism that does not involve any form of support. This process is of purely gravitational origin, and causes some of the mass accreted onto the core to stagnate there, rather than being transferred to the central stars. Thus, the simultaneous mass growth of the core and of the stellar mass can be computed. In addition, we estimate the mass of the most massive allowed star before its photoionizing radiation is capable of overcoming the accretion flow onto the core. This model constitutes a proof-of-concept for the simultaneous growth of the gas reservoir and the stellar mass, the delay in the formation of massive stars observed in cloud-scale numerical simulations, the need for massive, dense cores in order to form massive stars, and the observed correlation between the mass of the most massive star and the mass of the cluster it resides in. Also, our model implies that by the time massive stars begin to form in a core, a number of low-mass stars are expected to have already formed.