Related papers: Inadequate turbulent support in low-metallicity mo…
The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ; the central ~ 500 pc of the Galaxy) is a kinematically unusual environment relative to the Galactic disc, with high velocity dispersions and a steep size-linewidth relation of the molecular clouds. In…
The evolution of the molecular interstellar medium is controlled by processes such as turbulence, gravity, stellar feedback, and Galactic shear. AL a part of the ISM-6D https://gxli.github.io/ISM-6D/ project, using Gaia astrometric…
How does turbulence contribute to the formation and structure of the dense interstellar medium (ISM)? Molecular clouds are dense, high-pressure objects. It is usually argued that gravitational confinement causes the high pressures, and that…
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,…
We (Li et al. 2009; Paper-I) compared the magnetic field directions inferred from polarimetry data obtained from 100-pc scale inter-cloud media (ICM) and from sub-pc scale molecular cloud cores. The highly correlated result led us to…
(Abridged) We derive an analytical formula which provides estimates on multiscale gravitational energy distribution using the observed surface density PDF. Our analytical formalism also enables one to convert the observed column density PDF…
Supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds is a dominant agent that strongly affects the clouds' evolution and star formation activity. Turbulence may be initiated and maintained by a number of processes, acting at a wide range of physical…
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…
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…
We present a comprehensive study of MHD waves and instabilities in a weakly ionised system, e.g., an interstellar molecular cloud. We determine all the critical wavelengths of perturbations across which the sustainable wave modes can change…
Galactic disks consist of both stars and gas. The gas is more dynamically responsive than the stars, and strongly nonlinear structures and velocities can develop in the ISM even while stellar surface density perturbations remain…
A summary of global properties and an evaluation of the equilibrium state of molecular regions in the outer Galaxy are presented from the decomposition of the FCRAO Outer Galaxy Survey and targeted 12CO and 13CO observations of four giant…
We examine the role of the large-scale galactic-dynamical environment in setting the properties of giant molecular clouds in Milky Way-like galaxies. We perform three high-resolution simulations of Milky Way-like discs with the moving-mesh…
Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are the major reservoirs of molecular gas in galaxies, and the starting point for star formation. As such, their properties play a key role in setting the initial conditions for the formation of stars. We…
The radiation force on dust grains may be dynamically important in driving turbulence and outflows in rapidly star-forming galaxies. Recent studies focus on the highly optically-thick limit relevant to the densest ultra-luminous galaxies…
We present numerical studies of compressible, decaying turbulence, with and without magnetic fields, with initial rms Alfven and Mach numbers ranging up to five, and apply the results to the question of the support of star-forming…
The outer Galaxy presents an optimal setting for investigating molecular clouds and star formation in environments with low metallicity. A total of 72 Galactic edge clouds were surveyed using the CO\,(2--1) line with the IRAM\,30\,m…
The physical conditions of the Galactic center (GC) clouds moving with non-circular velocities are not well-known. We have studied the physical conditions of these clouds with the aim of better understanding the origin of the outstanding…
To investigate how molecular clouds react to different environmental conditions at a galactic scale, we present a catalogue of giant molecular clouds resolved down to masses of $\sim 10$~M$_{\odot}$ from a simulation of the entire disc of…
We use high spatial resolution observations of CO to systematically measure the resolved size-line width, luminosity-line width, luminosity-size, and the mass-luminosity relations of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) in a variety of…