Related papers: Turbulent Driving Scales in Molecular Clouds
We investigate giant molecular cloud (GMCs) collisions and their ability to induce gravitational instability and thus star formation. This mechanism may be a major driver of star formation activity in galactic disks. We carry out a series…
During the last two decades, the focus of star formation research has shifted from understanding the collapse of a single dense core into a star to studying the formation hundreds to thousands of stars in molecular clouds. In this chapter,…
I review recent numerical and analytical work on the feedback from both low- and high-mass cluster stars into their gasoeus environment. The main conclusions are that i) outflow driving appears capable of maintaing the turbulence in…
Galactic superbubbles are triggered by stellar feedback in the discs of star-forming galaxies. They are important in launching galactic winds, which play a key role in regulating the mass and energy exchange in galaxies. Observations can…
Turbulent diffuse molecular clouds can exhibit complicated morphologies caused by the interactions among radiation, chemistry, fluids, and fields. We performed full 3D simulations for turbulent diffuse molecular interstellar media,…
We compile a holistic scenario for molecular cloud (MC) evolution and control of the star formation efficiency (SFE), and present a first set of numerical tests of it. A {\it lossy} compressible cascade can generate density fluctuations and…
Turbulence is thought to be a primary driving force behind the early stages of star formation. In this framework large, self gravitating, turbulent clouds fragment into smaller clouds which in turn fragment into even smaller ones. At the…
Simulations from the scales of isolated galaxies to clouds have been instrumental in informing us about molecular cloud formation and evolution. Simulations are able to investigate the roles of gravity, feedback, turbulence, heating and…
Star formation is intimately linked to the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds. Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass via accretion from the surrounding cloud…
We describe an overall picture of galactic-scale star formation. Recent high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of two-fluid dynamics with cooling/heating and thermal conduction have shown that the formation of molecular clouds…
Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) are observed to be turbulent, but theory shows that without a driving mechanism turbulence should quickly decay. The question arises by which mechanisms turbulence is driven or sustained. It has been shown that…
Molecular clouds are to a great extent influenced by turbulent motions in the gas. Numerical and observational studies indicate that the star formation rate and efficiency crucially depend on the mixture of solenoidal and compressive modes…
Recent observations of column densities in molecular clouds find lognormal distributions with power-law high-density tails. These results are often interpreted as indications that supersonic turbulence dominates the dynamics of the observed…
The observed rapid onset of star formation in molecular clouds requires rapid formation of dense fragments which can collapse individually before being overtaken by global gravitationally-driven flows. Many previous investigations have…
I discuss the role of self-gravity and radiative heating and cooling in shaping the nature of the turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) of our galaxy. The heating and cooling cause it to be highly compressible, and, in some regimes of…
Simulations of isolated giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are an important tool for studying the dynamics of star formation, but their turbulent initial conditions (ICs) are uncertain. Most simulations have either initialized a velocity field…
The diffuse interstellar medium is dynamic, and its chemistry and evolution is determined by shock fronts as well as photodissociation. Shocks are implied by the supersonic motions and velocity dispersion often statistically called…
Turbulence plays a critical role in regulating star formation in molecular clouds and is also observed in simulations of primordial halos that host Population III (Pop III) stars. The relative velocity between baryons and dark matter at the…
We examine how well the physical properties of clumps in turbulent molecular clouds can be determined by measurements of observed clump structures. We compare simulated observations of three-dimensional numerical models of isothermal,…
We summarize the current status of the turbulent model of star formation in turbulent molecular clouds. In this model, clouds, clumps and cores form a hierarchy of nested density fluctuations caused by the turbulence, and either collapse or…