Related papers: The Importance of Tidal Forces in Molecular Cloud …
How molecular clouds fragment and create the dense structures which go on to form stars is an open question. We investigate the relative importance of different energy terms (kinetic, thermal, magnetic, and gravity - both self-gravity and…
Gravity drives the collapse of molecular clouds through which stars form, yet the exact role of gravity in cloud collapse remains a complex issue. Studies point to a picture where star formation occurs in clusters. In a typical, pc-sized…
Using the 3D density distribution derived from the 3D dust map of the solar neighborhood, the gravitational potential is obtained by solving the Poisson equation, from which the tidal tensor is computed. In the optimal decomposition, the…
Observational and theoretical evidence suggests that a substantial population of molecular clouds (MCs) appear to be unbound, dominated by turbulent motions. However, these estimations are made typically via the so-called viral parameter…
The virial ratio between kinetic and gravitational terms provides key insight into the balance of forces that confine a molecular cloud, but the clumpy and filamentary structures of resolved clouds make it difficult to evaluate this ratio…
Satellite galaxies endure powerful environmental tidal forces that drive mass stripping of their outer regions. Consequently, satellites located in central regions of galaxy clusters or groups, where the tidal field is strongest, are…
Magnetic fields are dynamically important in the diffuse interstellar medium. Understanding how gravitationally bound, star-forming clouds form requires modeling of the fields in a self-consistent, supernova-driven, turbulent, magnetized,…
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…
We explore whether observed molecular clouds could include a substantial population of unbound clouds. Using simulations which include only turbulence and gravity, we are able to match observed relations and naturally reproduce the observed…
The fragmentation of gas to form stars in molecular clouds is intrinsically linked to the turbulence within them. These internal motions are set at the birth of the cloud and may vary with galactic environment and as the cloud evolves. In…
Star clusters are subject to density irregularities in their host galaxy, such as giant molecular clouds (GMCs), the galactic disc and spiral arms, which are largely ignored in present day (N-body) simulations of cluster evolution. Time…
In interacting galaxies, strong tidal forces disturb the global morphology of the progenitors and give birth to the long stellar, gaseous and dusty tails often observed. In addition to this destructive effect, tidal forces can morph into a…
Pure power-law density profiles, $\rho(r)\propto r^{b-3}$, are classified in connection with the following reference cases: (i) isodensity, $b=3$, $\rho=$ const; (ii) isogravity, $b=2$, $g=$ const; (iii) isothermal, $b=1$,…
Observations of magnetic field strengths imply that molecular cloud fragments are individually close to being in a magnetically critical state, even though both magnetic field and column density measurements range over two orders of…
The evolution of molecular clouds in galactic centres is thought to differ from that in galactic discs due to a significant influence of the external gravitational potential. We present a set of numerical simulations of molecular clouds…
Radial tidal forces can be compressive instead of disruptive, a possibility that is frequently overlooked in high level physics courses. For example, radial tidal compression can emerge in extended stellar systems containing a smaller…
We apply gravity-based and density-based methods to identify clouds in numerical simulations of the star-forming, three-phase interstellar medium (ISM), and compare their properties and their global correlation with the star formation rate…
We analyse extinction maps of nearby Giant Molecular Clouds to forge a link between driving processes of turbulence and modes of star formation. Our investigation focuses on cloud structure in the column density range above the self…
We present direct $N$-body simulations of tidally filling 30,000 ${\rm M}_\odot$ star clusters orbiting between 10 kpc and 100 kpc in galaxies with a range of dark matter substructure properties. The time-dependent tidal force is determined…
Generally, merger likelihood increases in denser environments; however, the large relative velocities at the centres of dense clusters are expected to reduce the likelihood of mergers for satellite galaxies. Tidal features probe the recent…