Related papers: Gravity or turbulence? II. Evolving column density…
A physical model and two-dimensional numerical method for computing the evolution and spectra of protostellar clouds are described. The physical model is based on a system of magneto-gasdynamical equations, including ohmic and ambipolar…
Observations of molecular structures on scales of $\sim 0.1-50$ pc show that the specific angular momentum ($j$) scales with radius ($R$) as $j\sim R^{3/2}$. We study the effects of turbulence, gravity, and the magnetic field in shaping…
We quantitatively study the probability distribution function (PDF) of cosmological nonlinear density fluctuations from N-body simulations with Gaussian initial condition. In particular, we examine the validity and limitations of one-point…
We show that the inter-cloud Larson scaling relation between mean volume density and size $\rho\propto R^{-1}$, which in turn implies that mass $M\propto R^2$, or that the column density $N$ is constant, is an artifact of the observational…
The statistical properties of the $E \times B$ flux in different types of plasma turbulence simulations are investigated using probability density distribution functions (PDF). The physics included in the models ranges from two dimensional…
Gravity plays a determining role in the evolution of the molecular ISM. In \citet{2016arXiv160304342L}, we proposed a measure called gravitational energy spectrum to quantify the importance of gravity on multiple physical scales. In this…
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 derive the mass function of condensations (clumps) which were formed through a turbulent cascade over a range of spatial scales $L\le20$ pc during early, predominantly turbulent evolution of a molecular cloud. The approach rests upon the…
The global energy fluctuations of a low density gas granular gas in the homogeneous cooling state near its clustering instability are studied by means of molecular dynamics simulations. The relative dispersion of the fluctuations is shown…
We examine the physical parameters that affect the accumulation of gas in molecular clouds to high column densities where the formation of stars takes place. In particular, we analyze the dense gas mass fraction (DGMF) in a set of…
Kinetic energy stored in ISM bulk/turbulent motions is a crucial ingredient to properly describe most properties of observed galaxies. By using Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate how this energy is injected by supernovae and dissipated…
We present numerical evidence of dynamic star formation in which the accreted stellar mass grows superlinearly with time, roughly as $t^2$. We perform simulations of star formation in self-gravitating hydrodynamic and magneto-hydrodynamic…
We present large-scale molecular dynamics simulations to study the free evolution of granular gases. Initially, the density of particles is homogeneous and the velocity follows a Maxwell-Boltzmann (MB) distribution. The system cools down…
We report that the power driving gravity and capillary wave turbulence in a statistically stationary regime displays fluctuations much stronger than its mean value. We show that its probability density function (PDF) has a most probable…
We simulate fragmentation and gravitational collapse of cold, magnetized molecular clouds. We explore the nonlinear development of an instability mediated by ambipolar diffusion, in which the collapse rate is intermediate to fast…
Using numerical simulations of the formation and evolution of stellar clusters within molecular clouds, we show that the stars in clusters formed within collapsing molecular cloud clumps exhibit a constant velocity dispersion regardless of…
We discuss the generation and statistics of the density fluctuations in highly compressible polytropic turbulence, based on a simple model and one-dimensional numerical simulations. Observing that density structures tend to form in a…
We analyze the effects induced by the bulk viscosity on the dynamics associated to the extreme gravitational collapse. Aim of the work is to investigate whether the presence of viscous corrections to the evolution of a collapsing gas cloud…
Probability distribution functions (PDFs) of column densities are an established tool to characterize the evolutionary state of interstellar clouds. Using simulations, we show to what degree their determination is affected by noise,…
We review the progress that has been made in observing and analyzing molecular cloud structure in recent years. Structures are self-similar over a wide range of scales with similar power law indices independent of the star forming nature of…