Related papers: Nature of supersonic turbulence and density distri…
The probability distribution function (PDF) of the mass surface density is an essential characteristic of the structure of molecular clouds or the interstellar medium in general. Observations of the PDF of molecular clouds indicate a…
"The purpose of numerical models is not numbers but insight." (Hamming) In the spirit of this adage, and of Don Cox's approach to scientific speaking, we discuss the questions that the latest generation of numerical models of the…
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 examine the idea that diffuse and giant molecular clouds and their substructure form as density fluctuations induced by large scale interstellar turbulence. We do this by investigating the topology of various fields in realistic…
The transition from the diffuse warm neutral medium (WNM) to the dense cold neutral medium (CNM) is what set the initial conditions to the formation of molecular clouds. The properties of the turbulent cascade in the WNM, essential to…
We study, by means of adaptive mesh refinement hydro- and magnetohydrodynamical simulations that cover a wide range of scales (from kpc to sub-parsec), the dimension of the most dissipative structures and the injection scale of the…
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…
We review the properties of turbulent molecular clouds (MCs), focusing on the physical processes that influence star formation (SF). MC formation appears to occur during large-scale compression of the diffuse ISM driven by supernovae,…
The interstellar medium (ISM) of our Galaxy is magnetized, compressible and turbulent, influencing many key ISM properties, like star formation, cosmic ray transport, and metal and phase mixing. Yet, basic statistics describing…
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…
Context: The interstellar medium (ISM) on all scales is full of structures that can be used as tracers of processes that feed turbulence. Aims: We used HI survey data to derive global properties of the angular power distribution of the…
Protostellar jets and outflows are signatures of star formation and promising mechanisms for driving supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds. We quantify outflow-driven turbulence through three-dimensional numerical simulations using an…
Despite the simplicity of theoretical models of supersonically turbulent, isothermal media, their predictions successfully match the observed gas structure and star formation activity within low-pressure (P/k < 10^5 K cm^-3) molecular…
We present a self-consistent hydrodynamical simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy, at the resolution of 0.05 pc. The model includes star formation and a new implementation of stellar feedback through photo-ionization, radiative pressure and…
We test the hypothesis that the initial mass function (IMF) is determined by the density probability distribution function (PDF) produced by supersonic turbulence. We compare 14 simulations of star cluster formation in 50 solar mass…
We use three-dimensional numerical simulations to study self-organization in supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds. Our numerical experiments describe decaying and driven turbulent flows with an isothermal equation of state, sonic Mach…
We used magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of interstellar turbulence to study the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of increments of density, velocity, and magnetic field. We found that the PDFs are well described by a Tsallis…
The interstellar medium (ISM) of disk galaxies is turbulent, and yet the fundamental nature of ISM turbulence, the energy cascade, is not understood in detail. In this study, we use high-resolution simulations of a hydrodynamical,…
Supersonic turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) is closely linked to the formation of stars, and hence many theories connect the stellar initial mass function (IMF) with the turbulent properties of molecular clouds. Here we test…
The probability density function (PDF) of the gas density in subsonic and supersonic, isothermal, driven turbulence is analyzed with a systematic set of hydrodynamical grid simulations with resolutions up to 1024^3 cells. We performed a…