Related papers: The Structure of Molecular Clouds: III - A link be…
Star clusters stand at the intersection of much of modern astrophysics: the interstellar medium, gravitational dynamics, stellar evolution, and cosmology. Here we review observations and theoretical models for the formation, evolution, and…
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…
The molecular component of the Galaxy is comprised of turbulent, magnetized clouds, many of which are self-gravitating and form stars. To understand how these clouds' evolution may depend on their level of turbulence, mean magnetization,…
The flocculent structure of star formation in 7 galaxies has a Fourier transform power spectrum for azimuthal intensity scans with a power law slope that increases systematically from -1 at large scales to -1.7 at small scales. This is the…
During the past decade the dynamical importance of magnetic fields in molecular clouds has been increasingly recognized, as observational evidence has accumulated. However, how a magnetic field affect star formation is still unclear.…
The evolution of molecular clouds in galactic centres is thought to differ from that in galactic discs due to a significant influence of the external gravitational potential. We present a set of numerical simulations of molecular clouds…
(Abridged) Aims. We intend to derive statistical properties of stochastic gas motion inside the dense low mass star forming molecular cores traced by NH3(1,1) and (2,2) emission lines. Methods. We use the spatial two-point autocorrelation…
What is the nature of a star forming clump? Observations reveal these to be chaotic environments being modified and influenced by many physical processes. However, numerical simulations often define these initial star forming clumps to be…
We demonstrate that the observationally inferred rapid onset of star formation after parental molecular clouds have assembled can be achieved by flow-driven cloud formation of atomic gas, using our previous three-dimensional numerical…
We present numerical simulations of the passage of clumpy gas through a galactic spiral shock and the subsequent formation of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). The spiral shock forms dense clouds while dissipating kinetic energy, producing…
Most stars form in highly clustered environments within molecular clouds, but eventually disperse into the distributed stellar field population. Exactly how the stellar distribution evolves from the embedded stage into gas-free associations…
Molecular clouds are observed to be turbulent, but the origin of this turbulence is not well understood. As a result, there are two different approaches to simulating molecular clouds, one in which the turbulence is allowed to decay after…
The distribution of the number of clusters as a function of mass M and age T suggests that clusters get eroded or dispersed in a regular way over time, such that the cluster number decreases inversely as an approximate power law with T…
The realization that most stars form in clusters, raises the question of whether star/planet formation are influenced by the cluster environment. The stellar density in the most prevalent clusters is the key factor here. Whether dominant…
We revisit the problem of the star formation timescale and the ages of molecular clouds. The apparent overabundance of star-forming molecular clouds over clouds without active star formation has been thought to indicate that molecular…
Newborn stars form within the localized, high density regions of molecular clouds. The sequence and rate at which stars form in dense clumps and the dependence on local and global environments are key factors in developing descriptions of…
We present an analysis of the relationship between the orientation of magnetic fields and filaments that form in 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of cluster-forming, turbulent molecular cloud clumps. We examine simulated cloud clumps with…
Observed molecular clouds often appear to have very low star formation efficiencies and lifetimes an order of magnitude longer than their free-fall times. Their support is attributed to the random supersonic motions observed in them. We…
Recent observations of molecular clouds show that dense filaments are the sites of present-day star formation. Thus, it is necessary to understand the filament formation process because these filaments provide the initial condition for star…
Recent surveys of dust continuum emission at sub-mm wavelengths have shown that filamentary molecular clouds are ubiquitous along the Galactic plane. These structures are inhomogeneous, with over-densities that are sometimes associated with…