Related papers: Can Hydrostatic Cores Form Within Isothermal Molec…
We investigate the propagation of a shock wave into a warm neutral medium and cold neutral medium by one-dimensional hydrodynamic calculations with detailed treatment of thermal and chemical processes. Our main result shows that thermal…
In a recent paper, Elmegreen (2000) has made a cogent case, from an observational point of view, that the lifetimes of molecular clouds are comparable to their dynamical timescales. If so, this has important implications for the mechanisms…
The isothermal gravitational collapse and fragmentation of a region within a molecular cloud and the subsequent formation of a protostellar cluster is investigated numerically. The clump mass spectrum which forms during the fragmentation…
Stars generally form faster than the ambipolar diffusion time, suggesting that several processes short circuit the delay and promote a rapid collapse. These processes are considered here, including turbulence compression in the outer parts…
One of the key problems in star formation research is to determine the role of magnetic fields. Starting from the atomic inter-cloud medium (ICM) which has density nH ~ 1 per cubic cm, gas must accumulate from a volume several hundred pc…
At the high temperatures present inside recently formed neutron stars ($T\gtrsim 5\times 10^{8}\, \text{K}$), the particles in their cores are in the "strong-coupling" regime, in which collisional forces make them behave as a single, stably…
We perform a comparative numerical hydrodynamics study of embedded protostellar disks formed as a result of the gravitational collapse of cloud cores of distinct mass (M_cl=0.2--1.7 M_sun) and ratio of rotational to gravitational energy…
Explosive events from magnetars are likely due to the catastrophic release of stress in their crusts, but the behavior of crustal matter beyond linear elasticity is poorly understood. We argue here that seminal results from molecular…
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…
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 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…
The isothermal gravitational collapse and fragmentation of a molecular cloud region and the subsequent formation of a protostellar cluster is investigated numerically. The clump mass spectrum which forms during the fragmentation phase can…
In order to understand the origin of observed molecular cloud properties, it is critical to understand how clouds interact with their environments during their formation, growth, and collapse. It has been suggested that accretion-driven…
We examine to what extent the inferred surface temperature of magnetars in quiescence can constrain the presence of a superfluid in the neutron star core and the role of magnetic field decay in the core. By performing detailed simulations…
A brief summary is presented of our current knowledge of the structure of cold molecular cloud cores that do not contain protostars, sometimes known as starless cores. The most centrally condensed starless cores are known as pre-stellar…
Fragmentation of filaments into dense cores is thought to be an important step in forming stars. The bar-mode instability of spherically collapsing cores found in previous linear analysis invokes a possibility of re-fragmentation of the…
Using recent dust continuum data, we generate the intrinsic ellipticity distribution of dense, starless molecular cloud cores. Under the hypothesis that the cores are all either oblate or prolate randomly-oriented spheroids, we show that a…
Using studies of nearby star formation with Spitzer, I will argue that star formation is restricted to dense cores within molecular clouds. The nature of these dense cores and their connection to star formation will be discussed. Their…
The thermal and chemical evolution of gravitationally collapsing protostellar clouds is investigated, focusing attention on their dependence on metallicity. Calculations are carried out for a range of metallicities spanning the local…
Spherical hydrodynamic models with a polytropic equation of state (EoS) for forming protostars are revisited in order to investigate the so-called luminosity conundrum highlighted by observations. For a molecular cloud (MC) core with such…