The Effect of Radiative Feedback on Bondi--Hoyle Flow around a Massive Star

Abstract

We apply an algorithm for radiative feedback on a dusty flow (detailed in Edgar and Clarke (2003)) to the problem of Bondi--Hoyle accretion. This calculation is potentially relevant to the formation of massive stars in ultradense cores of stellar clusters. We find that radiative feedback is \emph{more effective} than in the case of previous calculations in spherical symmetry. The Bondi-Hoyle geometry implies that material is flowing nearly tangentially when it experiences the sharp radiative impulse at the dust destruction radius, and consequently it is readily perturbed into outflowing orbits. We find that it is difficult for stellar masses to grow beyond around 10 M_sol (for standard interstellar dust abundances). We discuss the possible implications of this result for the formation mechanism of OB stars in cluster cores. We end by proposing a series of conditions which must be fulfilled if Bondi--Hoyle accretion is to continue.