Related papers: Collapsing molecular clouds with tracer particles:…
To understand the formation of stars from clouds of molecular gas, one essentially needs to know two things: What gas collapses, and how long it takes to do so. We address these questions by embedding pseudo-Lagrangian tracer particles in…
We have performed fully 3D simulations of the collapse of molecular cloud cores which obey the logatropic equation of state. By following the collapse of these cores from states of near hydrodynamic equilibrium, we are able to produce…
A large fraction of the gas in the Galaxy is cold, dense, and molecular. If all this gas collapsed under the influence of gravity and formed stars in a local free-fall time, the star formation rate in the Galaxy would exceed that observed…
Observed molecular clouds often appear to have very low star formation efficiencies and lifetimes an order of magnitude longer than their free-fall times. Their support is attributed to the random supersonic motions observed in them. We…
Observational evidence from local star-forming regions mandates that star formation occurs shortly after, or even during, molecular cloud formation. Models of the formation of molecular clouds in large-scale converging flows have identified…
We investigate the triggering of star formation in clouds that form in Galactic scale flows as the ISM passes through spiral shocks. We use the Lagrangian nature of SPH simulations to trace how the star forming gas is gathered into…
We use numerical hydrodynamic simulations to investigate prestellar core formation in the dynamic environment of giant molecular clouds, focusing on planar post-shock layers produced by colliding turbulent flows. A key goal is to test how…
The evolution of collapsing metal free protostellar clouds is investigated for various masses and initial conditions. We perform hydrodynamical calculations for spherically symmetric clouds taking account of radiative transfer of the…
Star formation begins with the gravitational collapse of a dense core inside a molecular cloud. As the collapse progresses, the centre of the core begins to heat up as it becomes optically thick. The temperature and density in the centre…
We present results from the first three-dimensional calculations ever to follow the collapse of a molecular cloud core (~ 10^{-18} g cm^{-3}) to stellar densities (> 0.01 g cm^{-3}). The calculations resolve structures over 7 orders of…
We present a unified model for molecular core formation and evolution, based on numerical simulations of converging, supersonic flows. Our model applies to star formation in GMCs dominated by large-scale turbulence, and contains four main…
The current study was developed to provide a database of relatively simple numerical simulations of protostellar collapse, as a template library for observations of cores and very young protostars, and for researchers who wish to test their…
Star cluster formation in giant molecular clouds involves the local collapse of the cloud into small gas-rich subclusters, which can then subsequently collide and merge to build up the final star cluster(s). In this paper, we simulate…
Star formation in magnetically subcritical clouds is investigated using a three-dimensional non-ideal magneto-hydrodynamics simulation. Since rapid cloud collapse is suppressed until the magnetic flux is sufficiently removed from the…
We study the formation of giant dense cloud complexes and of stars within them by means of SPH numerical simulations of the mildly supersonic collision of gas streams (``inflows'') in the warm neutral medium (WNM). The resulting…
In this study, the main goal is to understand the molecular cloud core collapse through the stages of first and second hydrostatic core formation. We investigate the properties of Larson's first and second cores following the evolution of…
Stars generally form faster than the ambipolar diffusion time, suggesting that several processes short circuit the delay and promote a rapid collapse. These processes are considered here, including turbulence compression in the outer parts…
A self-similar formalism for the study of the gravitational collapse of molecular gas provides an important theoretical framework from which to explore the dynamics of star formation. Motivated by the presence of elongated and filamentary…
We present the results of a series of numerical simulations of compressible, self-gravitating hydrodynamic turbulence of cluster-forming clumps in molecular clouds. We examine the role that turbulence has in the formation of gravitationally…
We describe an overall picture of galactic-scale star formation. Recent high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamical simulations of two-fluid dynamics with cooling/heating and thermal conduction have shown that the formation of molecular clouds…