Related papers: Filament fragmentation: Density gradients suppress…
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 perform numerical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of the gravitational collapse and fragmentation of a cylindrical molecular cloud with the help of the FLASH code. The cloud collapses rapidly along its radius without any signs of…
We study the stability of filaments in equilibrium between gravity and internal as well as external pressure using the grid based AMR-code RAMSES. A homogeneous, straight cylinder below a critical line mass is marginally stable. However, if…
It is well established that stellar discs are destabilized by sharp features in their phase space, driving recurrent spiral modes. We explore the extent to which surface-density breaks in disc galaxies - which represent sharp changes in the…
I present an overview of the hierarchy of structures existing in the interstellar medium (ISM) and the possible mechanisms that cause the fragmentation of one level into the next, with the formation of stars as its last step. Within this…
We discuss star formation in the turbulent interstellar medium. We argue that morphological appearance and dynamical evolution of the gas is primarily determined by supersonic turbulence, and that stars form via a process we call…
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…
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.…
Recent studies of the nearest star-forming clouds of the Galaxy at submillimeter wavelengths with the Herschel Space Observatory have provided us with unprecedented images of the initial conditions and early phases of the star formation…
We extend our previous work on simulations with the code RAMSES on accretion driven turbulence by including self-gravity and study the effects of core formation and collapse. We show that radial accretion onto filaments drives turbulent…
A viable solution to the origin of close binary systems, unaccounted for in recent theories, is presented. Fragmentation, occurring at the end of the secondary collapse phase (during which molecular hydrogen is dissociating), can form…
The mechanisms which could lead to chemo-thermal instabilities and fragmentation during the formation of primordial protostars are investigated analytically. We introduce approximations for H2 cooling rates bridging the optically thin and…
Long wavelength sonic oscillations are observed or inferred in many of the small, dark molecular clouds, the starless cores, that are the precursors to protostars. The oscillations provide significant internal energy and the time scale for…
Filaments are an ubiquitous feature of molecular clouds, and appear to play a critical role in assembling the material to form stars. The dominant filaments are observed to have a rather narrow range of widths around $\sim 0.1$ pc, and to…
In order to shed light on the main physical processes controlling fragmentation of massive dense cores, we present a uniform study of the density structure of 19 massive dense cores, selected to be at similar evolutionary stages, for which…
Star formation generally proceeds inside-out, with overdense regions inside protostellar cores collapsing rapidly and progressively less dense regions following later. Consequently, a small protostar will form early in the evolution of a…
We present two-dimensional simulations of finite, self-gravitating gaseous sheets. Unlike the case of infinite sheets, such configurations do not constitute equilibrium states but instead are subject to global collapse unless countered by…
Filamentary structures are ubiquitous in the interstellar medium, yet their formation, internal structure, and longevity have not been studied in detail. We report the results from a comprehensive numerical study that investigates the…
We present idealized numerical simulations of prestellar gravitational collapse of a moderate initial filamentary perturbation with an additional central ellipsoidal enhancement (a core) considering a uniform, and a stratified background,…
We examine the conditions under which binary and multiple stars may form out of turbulent molecular cloud cores using high resolution 3-D, adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) hydrodynamics (Truelove et al., 1997, 1998; Klein, 1999). We argue…