Related papers: Characteristic structure of star-forming clouds
Both observational and theoretical research over the past decade has demonstrated that the probability distribution function (PDF) of the gas density in turbulent molecular clouds is a key ingredient for understanding star formation. It has…
The density distribution within molecular clouds offers critical insights into their underlying physical processes, which are essential for understanding star formation. As a statistical measure of column density on the cloud scale, the…
Column density (N) PDFs serve as a powerful tool to characterize the physical processes that influence the structure of molecular clouds. Star-forming clouds can best be characterized by lognormal PDFs for the lower N range and a power-law…
The formation of stars shapes the structure and evolution of entire galaxies. The rate and efficiency of this process are affected substantially by the density structure of the individual molecular clouds in which stars form. The most…
The structure of molecular clouds can be characterized with the probability distribution function (PDF) of the mass surface density. In particular, the properties of the distribution can reveal the nature of the turbulence and star…
We present N-PDFs of 29 Galactic regions obtained from Herschel imaging at high angular resolution, covering diffuse and quiescent clouds, and those showing low-, intermediate-, and high-mass star formation (SF), and characterize the cloud…
Aims: We derive the probability density functions (PDFs) of column density for a complete sample of prominent molecular cloud complexes closer than 200 pc. Methods: We derive near-infrared dust extinction maps for 23 molecular cloud…
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…
We present the results of a numerical study designed to address the question of whether there is a column density threshold for star formation within molecular clouds. We have simulated a large number of different clouds, with volume and…
Constraining the physical and chemical evolution of molecular clouds is essential to our understanding of star formation. These investigations often necessitate knowledge of some local representative number density of the gas along the line…
Describing how the properties of the interstellar medium combine across size-scales is crucial for understanding star formation scaling laws and connecting Galactic and extragalactic data of molecular clouds. We describe how the statistical…
Using self-gravitational hydrodynamical numerical simulations, we investigated the evolution of high-density turbulent molecular clouds swept by a colliding flow. The interaction of shock waves due to turbulence produces networks of thin…
We use a suite of high resolution molecular cloud simulations carried out with the moving mesh code Arepo to explore the nature of star-forming filaments. The simulated filaments are identified and categorised from column density maps in…
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…
It has been recently shown that molecular clouds do not exhibit a unique shape for the column density probability distribution function (Npdf). Instead, clouds without star formation seem to possess a lognormal distribution, while clouds…
The probability distribution function of column density (PDF) has become the tool of choice for cloud structure analysis and star formation studies. Its simplicity is attractive, and the PDF could offer access to cloud physical parameters…
The nearest young stellar groups are associated with "hubs" of column density exceeding 10^22 cm^-2, according to recent observations. These hubs radiate multiple "filaments" of parsec length, having lower column density and fewer stars.…
We present a method to derive the density scaling relation $\langle n\rangle \propto L^{-\alpha}$ in regions of star formation or in their turbulent vicinities from straightforward binning of the column-density distribution ($N$-pdf). The…
Filamentary structures are often identified in column density maps of molecular clouds, and appear to be important for both low- and high-mass star formation. Theoretically, these structures are expected to form in regions where the…
The column density probability distribution function (N-PDF) of GMCs has been used as a diagnostic of star formation. Simulations and analytic predictions have suggested the N-PDF is composed of a low density lognormal component and a high…