Related papers: Star formation in turbulent molecular clouds with …
The one-point statistics of column density distributions of turbulent molecular cloud models are investigated and compared with observations. In agreement with the observations, the number N of pixels with surface density S is distributed…
Stars form within molecular clouds but our understanding of this fundamental process remains hampered by the complexity of the physics that drives their evolution. We review our observational and theoretical knowledge of molecular clouds…
We compare velocity structure in the Polaris Flare molecular cloud at scales ranging from 0.015 pc to 20 pc to simulations of supersonic hydrodynamic and MHD turbulence computed with the ZEUS MHD code. We use several different statistical…
Stars form by gravoturbulent fragmentation of interstellar gas clouds. The supersonic turbulence ubiquitously observed in Galactic molecular gas generates strong density fluctuations with gravity taking over in the densest and most massive…
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…
Massive star-forming regions (MSFRs) are commonly associated with hub-filament systems (HFSs) and sites of cloud-cloud collision (CCC). Recent observational studies of some MSFRs suggest a possible connection between CCC and the formation…
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…
A supersonic cloud-cloud collision produces a shock-compressed layer which leads to formation of high-mass stars via gravitational instability. We carried out a detailed analysis of the layer by using the numerical simulations 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…
Stars are thought to form predominantly within filamentary molecular clouds. Recent studies have suggested that active star formation, including the formation of stellar clusters and massive stars, occurs within so-called "hub" structures,…
We present a set of numerical experiments designed to systematically investigate how turbulence and magnetic fields influence the morphology, energetics, and dynamics of filaments produced in wind-cloud interactions. We cover 3D…
We study the observable signatures of self-gravitating MHD turbulence by applying the probability density functions (PDFs) and the spatial density power spectrum to synthetic column density maps. We find that there exists three…
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…
Young massive clusters (YMCs) are recently formed astronomical objects with unusually high star formation rates. We propose the collision of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) as a likely formation mechanism of YMCs, consistent with the YMC…
We use numerical simulations of turbulent cluster-forming regions to study the nature of dense filamentary structures in star formation. Using four hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations chosen to match observations, we identify…
Recent observations suggest that intensive molecular cloud collision can trigger massive star/cluster formation. The most important physical process caused by the collision is a shock compression. In this paper, the influence of a shock…
In this third paper in our cloud-collision series, we present the results from simulations of head-on collisions with a strongly centrally-condensed initial density profile of $\rm \rho \propto R^{-2}$. We investigate the impact of these…
Filamentary molecular clouds are recognized as primary sites for the formation of stars. Specifically, regions characterized by the overlapping point of multiple filaments, known as hub regions, often associated with active star formation.…
Using a suite of 3D hydrodynamical simulations of star-forming molecular clouds, we investigate how the density probability distribution function (PDF) changes when including gravity, turbulence, magnetic fields, and protostellar outflows…
Super-sonic turbulence fragments molecular clouds (MC) into a very complex density field with density contrasts of several orders of magnitude. A fraction of the gas is locked into dense and gravitationally bound cores, which collapse as…