Related papers: Multiple power-law tails in the density and column…
The emergence and development of a power-law tail (PLT) at the high-density end of the observed column-density distribution is thought to be indicative for advanced evolution of star-forming molecular clouds. As shown from many numerical…
We report the novel detection of complex high-column density tails in the probability distribution functions (PDFs) for three high-mass star-forming regions (CepOB3, MonR2, NGC6334), obtained from dust emission observed with Herschel. The…
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…
We explore the idea that the power-law tail in the mass function of protostellar condensations and stars arises from the accretion of ambient cloud material on to a condensation, coupled with a nonuniform (exponential) distribution of…
Hydrodynamical calculations in three space dimensions of the collapse of an isothermal, rotating 1 M\sol protostellar cloud are presented. The initial density stratification is a power law with density $\rho \propto r^{-p}$, with $p=1$. The…
The isothermal dynamical evolution of a clumpy and turbulent molecular cloud region and its fragmentation into a protostellar cluster is investigated numerically. The effect of different initial density and velocity distributions, generated…
We investigate numerically and semi-analytically the collapse of low-mass, rotating prestellar cores. Initially, the cores are in approximate equilibrium with low rotation (the initial ratio of thermal to gravitational energy is $\alpha_0…
We study the observable signatures of self-gravitating MHD turbulence by applying the probability density functions (PDFs) and the spatial density power spectrum to synthetic column density maps. We find that there exists three…
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…
Using a suite of 3D hydrodynamical simulations of star-forming molecular clouds, we investigate how the density probability distribution function (PDF) changes when including gravity, turbulence, magnetic fields, and protostellar outflows…
I present an analytic model for the early post-collapse evolution of a spherical density peak on the coherence scale of the initial fluctuations in a universe filled with collisionless and pressure-free "dust". On a time-scale which is…
We derive an analytical theory of the PDF of density fluctuations in supersonic turbulence in the presence of gravity in star-forming clouds. The theory is based on a rigorous derivation of a combination of the Navier-Stokes continuity…
We present numerical simulations of the evolution of low-mass, isothermal, molecular cores which are subjected to an increase in external pressure $P\xt$. If $P\xt$ increases very slowly, the core approaches instability quite…
The first generation of haloes forms from the collapse of the smallest peaks in the initial density field. $N$-body simulations of this process suggest a prompt formation of a steep power-law cusp, but these calculations are plagued by…
MRT unstable plumes are observed in a loop-like eruptive prominence using SDO/AIA observations. The small-scale cavities are developed within the prominence, where perturbations trigger dark plumes (P1 \& P2) propagating with the speed of…
Star-forming clumps dominate the rest-frame ultraviolet morphology of galaxies at the peak of cosmic star formation. If turbulence driven fragmentation is the mechanism responsible for their formation, we expect their stellar mass function…
Power-law tails are often seen in probability density functions (PDFs) of molecular cloud column densities, and have been attributed to the effect of gravity. We show that extinction PDFs of a sample of five molecular clouds obtained at a…
Recent observations of column densities in molecular clouds find lognormal distributions with power-law high-density tails. These results are often interpreted as indications that supersonic turbulence dominates the dynamics of the observed…
We conduct numerical experiments in which we systematically vary the initial density over four orders of magnitude and the turbulent velocity over a factor ten. In a companion paper, we investigate the dependence of this distribution on the…
We investigate the formation of the first stars at the end of the cosmic dark ages with a suite of three-dimensional, moving mesh simulations that directly resolve the collapse of the gas beyond the formation of the first protostar at the…