{"paper":{"title":"The Evolution of Star-Forming Gas in STARFORGE: From Clouds, to Cores, to Stars","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"Once a protostar forms, the remaining gas lifetime scales directly with the star's final mass, from under 1 Myr for low-mass stars to over 3 Myr for high-mass ones.","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.GA","authors_text":"Ananya Kaalva, Michael Y. Grudic, Nina Filippova, Stella S. R. Offner","submitted_at":"2026-04-07T21:16:13Z","abstract_excerpt":"Star formation occurs within dense regions of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), however, exactly how gas collects and evolves to form individual stars and what role dense cores play remains unclear. We use the Lagrangian cell information in the STARFORGE simulation suite to track star-forming gas in three GMCs with varying magnetic field strengths. We find that, once a protostar forms, the lifetime of the unaccreted gas correlates with the final stellar mass, where low-mass stars ($M_*$ < 0.5 M$_\\odot$) accrete for 0.5-0.6 Myr from a relatively local reservoir of gas, and high-mass stars ($M_*$ >"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"once a protostar forms, the lifetime of the unaccreted gas correlates with the final stellar mass, where low-mass stars (M_* < 0.5 M_⊙) accrete for 0.5-0.6 Myr from a relatively local reservoir of gas, and high-mass stars (M_* > 2 M_⊙) accrete over 3.3-4.7 Myr from a much larger volume. Although the protostellar accretion time increases weakly with magnetic field strength, the accreting gas radii, velocity dispersions, virial parameters, and magnetic energy ratios are largely insensitive to the global cloud properties.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"That the Lagrangian cell tracking in the STARFORGE suite accurately captures the true physical evolution of gas without significant numerical artifacts, and that the three chosen GMCs with varied magnetic fields are representative enough to conclude that accreting gas properties are insensitive to global cloud conditions.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"In STARFORGE simulations, unaccreted gas lifetime correlates with stellar mass: low-mass stars accrete locally for 0.5-0.6 Myr while high-mass stars accrete from extended regions for 3.3-4.7 Myr, with core-like turbulent properties.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"Once a protostar forms, the remaining gas lifetime scales directly with the star's final mass, from under 1 Myr for low-mass stars to over 3 Myr for high-mass ones.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"cfb7ad6a78828af3751fa2baaea000b633291209aecde8d7e1b07dfb25a54463"},"source":{"id":"2604.06471","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":"742daf45-9b91-4a43-8c18-39dcb822c0a4","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-10T18:42:24.959397Z","strongest_claim":"once a protostar forms, the lifetime of the unaccreted gas correlates with the final stellar mass, where low-mass stars (M_* < 0.5 M_⊙) accrete for 0.5-0.6 Myr from a relatively local reservoir of gas, and high-mass stars (M_* > 2 M_⊙) accrete over 3.3-4.7 Myr from a much larger volume. Although the protostellar accretion time increases weakly with magnetic field strength, the accreting gas radii, velocity dispersions, virial parameters, and magnetic energy ratios are largely insensitive to the global cloud properties.","one_line_summary":"In STARFORGE simulations, unaccreted gas lifetime correlates with stellar mass: low-mass stars accrete locally for 0.5-0.6 Myr while high-mass stars accrete from extended regions for 3.3-4.7 Myr, with core-like turbulent properties.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"That the Lagrangian cell tracking in the STARFORGE suite accurately captures the true physical evolution of gas without significant numerical artifacts, and that the three chosen GMCs with varied magnetic fields are representative enough to conclude that accreting gas properties are insensitive to global cloud conditions.","pith_extraction_headline":"Once a protostar forms, the remaining gas lifetime scales directly with the star's final mass, from under 1 Myr for low-mass stars to over 3 Myr for high-mass ones."},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2604.06471/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":2,"snapshot_sha256":"d84494512cbe60aaf6b0ac593ff733fa5dceb96d73472a51bac3e16b60735923"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}