Related papers: Studies of Turbulence Dissipation in Taurus Molecu…
The core velocity dispersion (CVD) is a potentially useful tool for studying the turbulent velocity field of molecular clouds. CVD is based on centroid velocities of dense gas clumps, thus is less prone to density fluctuation and reflects…
Young stars form in molecular cores, which are dense condensations within molecular clouds. We have searched for molecular cores traced by $^{13}$CO $J=1\to 0$ emission in the Taurus molecular cloud and studied their properties. Our data…
The energy cascade rate of turbulence can be measured with the structure function. In practice, the 3D velocity of the gas in molecular cloud is hard to measure, which makes the measurement of structure function difficult. In the case of…
The turbulent motion within molecular clouds is a key factor controlling star formation. Turbulence supports molecular cloud cores from evolving to gravitational collapse and hence sets a lower bound on the size of molecular cloud cores in…
We have identified outflows and bubbles in the Taurus molecular cloud based on the $\sim 100$ deg$^2$ Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory $^{12}$CO(1-0) and $^{13}$CO(1-0) maps and the Spitzer young stellar object catalogs. In the main…
The structure and star formation activity of a molecular cloud are fundamentally linked to its internal turbulence. However, accurately measuring the turbulent velocity dispersion is challenging due to projection effects and observational…
We discuss constraints on the rates of stirring and dissipation of MHD turbulence in molecular clouds. Recent MHD simulations suggest that turbulence in clouds decays rapidly, thus providing a significant source of energy input,…
Star formation is intimately linked to the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds. Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass via accretion from the surrounding cloud…
Momentum deposition by radiation pressure from young, massive stars may help to destroy molecular clouds and unbind stellar clusters by driving large-scale outflows. We extend our previous numerical radiation hydrodynamic study of…
Turbulence governs the fragmentation of molecular clouds and plays a pivotal role in star formation. The persistence of observed cloud turbulence suggests it does not decay significantly within the turnover timescale, implying a recurrent…
Star formation is intimately linked to the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds. Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass via accretion from the surrounding cloud…
We discuss the nature of the velocity dispersion vs. size relation for molecular clouds. In particular, we add to previous observational results showing that the velocity dispersions in molecular clouds and cores are not purely functions of…
The remarkably filamentary spatial distribution of young stars in the Taurus molecular cloud has significant implications for understanding low-mass star formation in relatively quiescent conditions. The large scale and regular spacing of…
The kinetic energy of supersonic turbulence within interstellar clouds is subject to cooling by dissipation in shocks and subsequent line radiation. The clouds are therefore susceptible to a condensation process controlled by the specific…
Velocity anisotropy induced by MHD turbulence is investigated using computational simulations and molecular line observations of the Taurus molecular cloud. A new analysis method is presented to evaluate the degree and angle of velocity…
We discuss a new technique for studying astrophysical turbulence that utilizes the statistics of Doppler-broadened spectral lines. The technique relates the power Velocity Coordinate Spectrum (VCS), i.e. the spectrum of fluctuations…
The temperature of the gas in molecular clouds is a key determinant of the characteristic mass of star formation. Ambipolar diffusion (AD) is considered one of the most important heating mechanisms in weakly ionized molecular clouds. In…
Turbulence influences the structure and dynamics of molecular clouds, and plays a key role in regulating star formation. We therefore need methods to accurately infer turbulence properties of molecular clouds from position-position-velocity…
To evaluate the effect of turbulent heating in the thermal balance of interstellar clouds, we develop an extension of the log-Poisson intermittency model to supersonic turbulence. The model depends on a parameter, d, interpreted as the…
We review recent advances in the analytical and numerical modeling of the star formation rate in molecular clouds and discuss the available observational constraints. We focus on molecular clouds as the fundamental star formation sites,…