Related papers: Star Formation and the Initial Mass Function
We review current theories for the origin of the Stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) with particular focus on the extent to which the IMF can be considered universal across various environments. To place the issue in an observational…
Protostellar jets and outflows are signatures of star formation and promising mechanisms for driving supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds. We quantify outflow-driven turbulence through three-dimensional numerical simulations using an…
Observations of normal galactic star-forming regions suggest there is widespread near-uniformity in the initial stellar mass function (IMF) in spite of diverse physical conditions. Fluctuations may come largely from statistical effects and…
Star formation is inefficient. Recent advances in numerical simulations and theoretical models of molecular clouds show that the combined effects of interstellar turbulence, magnetic fields and stellar feedback can explain the low…
The process of star formation in interstellar molecular clouds is believed to be controlled by driven supersonic magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. We suggest that in the inertial range such turbulence obeys the Kolmogorov law, while in the…
Massive stars form in clusters within self-gravitating molecular clouds. The size scale of these clusters is sufficiently large that non-thermal, or turbulent, motions of the gas must be taken into account when considering their formation.…
Observations reveal a uniform Kolmogorov turbulence throughout the diffuse ionized interstellar medium (ISM) and supersonic turbulence preferentially located in the Galactic plane. Correspondingly, we consider the Galactic distribution of…
We use a recently-developed analytic model for the ISM structure from scales of GMCs through star-forming cores to explore how the pre-stellar core mass function (CMF) and, by extrapolation, stellar initial mass function (IMF) should depend…
We investigate turbulent gas motions in spiral galaxies and their importance to star formation in far outer disks, where the column density is typically far below the critical value for spontaneous gravitational collapse. Following the…
We present models for the initial mass function (IMF) for stars forming within molecular clouds. These models use the idea that stars determine their own masses through the action of powerful stellar outflows. This concept allows us to…
Context. Massive stars are generally believed to form in supersonic turbulent environment. However, recent observations have challenged this traditional view. High spatial and spectral resolution observations of the Orion Molecular Cloud…
To study how supernova feedback structures the turbulent interstellar medium, we construct 3D models of vertically stratified gas stirred by discrete supernova explosions, including vertical gravitational field and parametrized heating and…
We discuss the likely sources of turbulence in the ISM and explicitly calculate the detailed grand source function for the conventional sources of turbulence from supernovae, superbubbles, stellar winds and HII regions. We find that the…
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…
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…
(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…
The fragmentation properties of parsec-scales clumps play a fundamental role in shaping the dense gas condensations known as cores, the immediate progenitor of stars. The distribution of core masses, the so-called core mass function, is the…
Studies of evolved massive stars indicate that they form in a clustered mode. During the earliest evolutionary stages, these regions are embedded within their natal cores. Here, we show high-spatial-resolution interferometric dust continuum…
We propose that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is universal in the sense that its functional form arises as a consequence of the statistics of random supersonic flows. A model is developed for the origin of the stellar IMF, that…
The interstellar medium (ISM) provides a unique laboratory for highly supersonic, driven hydrodynamics turbulence. We present a theory of such turbulence, confirm it by numerical simulations, and use the results to explain observational…