Related papers: Fractal Structure of Molecular Clouds
(Abridged) We present a series of decaying turbulence simulations that represent a cluster-forming clump within a molecular cloud, investigating the role of magnetic fields on the formation of potential star-forming cores. We present an…
Fractal percolation exhibits a dramatic topological phase transition, changing abruptly from a dust-like set to a system spanning cluster. The transition points are unknown and difficult to estimate. In many classical percolation models the…
The collapse and fragmentation of initially prolate and oblate, magnetic molecular clouds is calculated in three dimensions with a gravitational, radiative hydrodynamics code. The code includes magnetic field effects in an approximate…
I describe the scenario of molecular cloud (MC) evolution that has emerged over the past decade or so. MCs can start out as cold atomic clouds formed by compressive motions in the warm neutral medium (WNM) of galaxies. Such motions can be…
Properties of candidate stars, forming out of molecular clouds, depend on the ambient conditions of the parent cloud. We present a series of 2D and 3D simulations of fragmentation of molecular clouds in starburst regions as well as clouds…
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…
Molecular clouds (MC) are the densest and coldest component of the interstellar gas, and the sites of star formation. They are also turbulent and fractal and their masses and sizes span several orders of magnitude. It is also generally…
Research done during the previous century established our Standard Cosmological Model. There are many details still to be filled in, but few would seriously doubt the basic premise. Past surveys have revealed that the large-scale…
The fragmentation of molecular cloud cores a factor of 1.1 denser than the critical Bonnor-Ebert sphere is examined though three-dimensional numerical simulations. A nested grid is employed to resolve fine structure down to 1 AU while…
More and more observations indicate that young star clusters could retain imprints of their formation process. In particular, the degree of substructuring and rotation are possibly the direct result of the collapse of the parent molecular…
Fractals are geometric shapes that can display complex and self-similar patterns found in nature (e.g., clouds and plants). Recent works in visual recognition have leveraged this property to create random fractal images for model…
Molecular Cloud Complexes (MCCs) are highly structured and ``turbulent''. Observational evidence suggests that MCCs are dynamically dominated systems, rather than quasi-equilibrium entities. The observed structure is more likely a…
We review recent results from numerical simulations and related models of MHD turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) and in molecular clouds. We discuss the implications of turbulence for the processes of cloud formation and evolution,…
Atmospheric flows exhibit long-range spatiotemporal correlations manifested as the fractal geometry to the global cloud cover pattern concomitant with inverse power law form for spectra of temporal fluctuations. Such non-local connections…
Dust continuum and molecular observations of the low column density parts of molecular clouds have revealed the presence of elongated structures which appear to be well aligned with the magnetic field. These so-called striations are usually…
Molecular clouds are the principle stellar nurseries of our universe, keeping them in the focus of both observational and theoretical studies. From observations, some of the key properties of molecular clouds are well known but many…
Dense molecular filaments are central to the star formation process, but the detailed manner in which they fragment into prestellar cores is not yet well understood. Here, we investigate the fragmentation properties and dynamical state of…
Knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of Galactic molecular clouds is important for understanding how clouds are affected by processes such as turbulence and magnetic fields and how this structure effects star formation within them.…
FlowClass.jl is a Julia package for classifying continuous-time dynamical systems into a hierarchy of structural classes: Gradient, Gradient-like, Morse-Smale, Structurally Stable, and General. Given a vector field…
We construct models of molecular clouds that are considered as ensembles of transient cores. Each core is assumed to develop in the background gas of the cloud, grow to high density and decay into the background. The chemistry in each core…