Related papers: Dense core formation by fragmentation of velocity-…
It is now widely accepted that dense filaments of molecular gas are integral to the process of stellar birth. While numerical simulations have succeeded in reproducing filamentary structure in turbulent gas and analytic calculations have…
Sufficiently massive clumps of molecular gas collapse under self-gravity and fragment to spawn a cluster of stars that have a range of masses. We investigate observationally the early stages of formation of a stellar cluster in a massive…
We present new NH3 (1,1), (2,2), and (4,4) observations from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) compiled with work in the literature to explore the range of conditions observed in young, massive star-forming regions. To sample the…
Low-mass stars are generally understood to form by the gravitational collapse of the dense molecular clouds known as starless cores. Continuum observations have not been able to distinguish among the several different hypotheses that…
Herschel surveys of Galactic clouds support a paradigm for low-mass star formation in which dense filaments play a crucial role. The detailed fragmentation properties of star-forming filaments remain poorly understood, however, and the…
Formation of stars is now believed to be tightly linked to the dynamical evolution of interstellar filaments in which they form. In this paper we analyze the density structure and kinematics of a small network of infrared dark filaments,…
We present a multiwavelength investigation of a region of a nearby giant molecular cloud that is distinguished by a minimal level of star formation activity. With our new 12CO(J=2-1) and 13CO(J=2-1) observations of a remote region within…
Long wavelength sonic oscillations are observed or inferred in many of the small, dark molecular clouds, the starless cores, that are the precursors to protostars. The oscillations provide significant internal energy and the time scale for…
Sheet-like clouds are common in turbulent gas and perhaps form via collisions between turbulent gas flows. Having examined the evolution of an isothermal shocked slab in an earlier contribution, in this work we follow the evolution of a…
Prestellar cores are generally spheroidal, some of which appear oblate while others appear prolate. Very few of them appear circular in projection. Little, however, is understood about the processes or the physical conditions under which…
We report results of molecular line observations carried out toward a massive dense core in the Cyg OB 7 molecular cloud. The core has an extraordinarily large mass ($\sim1.1 \times 10^4$ $M_\odot$) and size ($\sim2 \times 5$ pc$^2$), but…
Stars form in cold dense cores showing subsonic velocity dispersions. The parental molecular clouds display higher temperatures and supersonic velocity dispersions. The transition from core to cloud has been observed in velocity dispersion,…
Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) are unique laboratories to study the initial conditions of high-mass star and star cluster formation. We present high-sensitivity and high-angular resolution IRAM PdBI observations of N2H+ (1-0) towards IRDC…
Context: The formation of high-mass star-forming regions from their parental gas cloud and the subsequent fragmentation processes lie at the heart of star formation research. Aims: We aim to study the dynamical and fragmentation properties…
Continuum observations of molecular clouds have revealed a surprising amount of substructure in the form of filaments of a few pc length and cores of ~0.1 pc diameter. Understanding the evolution of these substructures towards star…
We calculate the evolution of molecular line profiles of HCO$^+$ and C$^{18}$O toward a dense core thatis forming inside a magnetized turbulent molecular cloud. Features of the profiles can be affected more significantly by coupled velocity…
Star formation is primarily controlled by the interplay between gravity, turbulence, and magnetic fields. However, the turbulence and magnetic fields in molecular clouds near the Galactic Center may differ substantially from spiral-arm…
The formation of massive stars is a highly complex process in which it is not clear whether the star-forming gas is in global gravitational collapse or in an equilibrium state, supported by turbulence. By studying one of the most massive…
We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations of seven massive molecular clumps which are dark in the far-infrared for wavelengths up to 70 $\mu$m. Our 1.3 mm continuum images reveal 44 dense cores, with gas masses ranging from 1.4 to…
In this paper, we review some of the properties of dense molecular cloud cores. The results presented here rely on three-dimensional numerical simulations of isothermal, magnetized, turbulent, and self-gravitating molecular clouds (MCs) in…