Related papers: Molecular cloud abundances and anomalous diffusion
In a series of papers we investigate the effect of collisions between turbulent molecular clouds on their structure, evolution and star formation activity. In this paper we look into the role of the clouds' initial virial ratios. Three…
A generalization of the Drude model is studied. On the one hand, the free motion of the particles is allowed to be sub- or superdiffusive; on the other hand, the distribution of the time delay between collisions is allowed to have a long…
The dense molecular cloud cores that form stars, like other self-gravitating objects, undergo bulk oscillations. Just at the point of gravitational instability, their fundamental oscillation mode has zero frequency. We study, using…
The classical picture of a star-forming filament is a near-equilibrium structure, with collapse dependent on its gravitational criticality. Recent observations have complicated this picture, revealing filaments as a mess of apparently…
This is the second paper in a series where we study the influence of transport processes on the chemical evolution of protoplanetary disks. Our analysis is based on a flared alpha-model of the DM Tau system, coupled to a large gas-grain…
Much of what we know about molecular clouds, and by extension star formation, comes from molecular line observations. Interpreting these correctly requires knowledge of the underlying molecular abundances. Simulations of molecular clouds…
Molecular clouds are supersonically turbulent. This turbulence governs the initial mass function and the star formation rate. In order to understand the details of star formation, it is therefore essential to understand the properties of…
We present virial models for the global evolution of giant molecular clouds. Focusing on the presence of an accretion flow, and accounting for the amount of mass, momentum, and energy supplied by accretion and star formation feedback, we…
Much of modern astrophysics is grounded on the observed chemical compositions of stars and the diffuse plasma that pervades the space between stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies. X-ray and EUV spectra of the hot plasma in the outer…
A sheet of glassy polymers placed in a solvent shows swelling behaviors quite different from that of soft polymers (rubbers and gels). (1) Non-Fickian diffusion (called case II diffusion): As solvent permeates into the sample, a sharp front…
Subdwarf B stars show chemical peculiarities that cannot be explained by diffusion theory alone. Both mass loss and turbulence have been invoked to slow down atomic diffusion in order to match observed abundances. The fact that some sdB…
The diffusion of macromolecules in cells and in complex fluids is often found to deviate from simple Fickian diffusion. One explanation offered for this behavior is that molecular crowding renders diffusion anomalous, where the mean-squared…
We investigate the chemical and observational implications of repetitive transient dense core formation in molecular clouds. We allow a transient density fluctuation to form and disperse over a period of 1 Myr, tracing its chemical…
We use 3D-PDR, a three-dimensional astrochemistry code for modeling photodissociation regions (PDRs), to post-process hydrodynamic simulations of turbulent, star-forming clouds. We focus on the transition from atomic to molecular gas, with…
Diffusion of elements in the atmosphere and envelope of a star can drastically alter its surface composition, leading to extreme chemical peculiarities. We consider the case of hot subdwarfs, where surface helium abundances range from…
The universality of interstellar turbulence is examined from observed structure functions of 27 giant molecular clouds and Monte Carlo modeling. We show that the structure functions, dv=v0 l^gamma, derived from wide field imaging of CO…
Diffusion is a fundamental phenomenon that occurs ubiquitously in nature and remains the subject of continuous research interest. Understanding diffusion is a key to understanding leaving systems. In this Chapter, I discuss diffusion of…
Simulations generally show that non-self-gravitating clouds have a lognormal column density ($\Sigma$) probability distribution function (PDF), while self-gravitating clouds with active star formation develop a distinct power-law tail at…
We investigate the dynamics of a particle moving randomly along a disordered hetero-polymer subjected to rapid conformational changes which induce superdiffusive motion in chemical coordinates. We study the antagonistic interplay between…
MHD turbulence plays a central role in the physics of star-forming molecular clouds and the interstellar medium. I here show that MHD turbulence in molecular clouds must be driven to account for the observed supersonic motions in the…