Related papers: Star Formation and the Initial Mass Function
The extent to which turbulence mixes gas in the face of recurrent infusions of fresh metals by supernovae (SN) could help provide important constraints on the local star formation conditions. This includes predictions of the metallicity…
The role of turbulence and turbulent mixing in the formation and evolution of the early universe is examined. A new quantum-gravitational-dynamics model suggests that the mechanism of the hot big bang is functionally equivalent to the…
We compute the star formation rate (SFR) in molecular clouds (MCs) that originate {\it ab initio} in a new, higher-resolution simulation of supernova-driven turbulence. Because of the large number of well-resolved clouds with…
Hundreds of brown dwarfs (BDs) have been discovered in the last few years in stellar clusters and among field stars. BDs are almost as numerous as hydrogen burning stars and so a theory of star formation should also explain their origin.…
I model the multi-phase interstellar medium (ISM) randomly heated and shocked by supernovae, with gravity, differential rotation and other parameters we understand to be typical of the solar neighbourhood. The simulations are 3D extending…
(Abridged) The formation of molecular clouds (MCs) from the diffuse interstellar gas appears to be a necessary step for star formation, as young stars invariably occur within them. However, the mechanisms controlling the formation of MCs…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) in star clusters is reviewed. Uncertainties in the observations are emphasized. We suggest there is a distinct possibility that cluster IMFs vary systematically with density or pressure. Dense…
The possibility that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) arises mostly from cloud structure is investigated with fractal Brownian motion (fBm) clouds that have power-law power spectra. An fBm cloud with a realistic projected power…
We present the results of eighteen magnetohydrodynamical calculations of the collapse of a molecular cloud core to form a protostar. Some calculations include radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion approximation while others…
We perform a series of three-dimensional, magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of star cluster formation including gravity, turbulence, magnetic fields, stellar radiative heating and outflow feedback. We observe that the inclusion of…
A coalescence model using the observed properties of pre-stellar condensations (PSCs) shows how an initially steep IMF that might be characteristic of primordial cloud fragmentation can change into a Salpeter IMF or shallower IMF in a…
We discuss the factors influencing the formation and gravitational fragmentation of protostellar discs. We start with a review of how observations of prestellar cores can be analysed statistically to yield plausible initial conditions for…
The role of turbulent fragmentation in regulating the efficiency of star formation in interstellar clouds is examined from new wide field imaging of 12CO and 13CO J=1-0 emission from the Rosette and G216-2.5 molecular clouds. The Rosette…
We investigate the turbulence driving mode of ionizing radiation from massive stars on the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). We run hydrodynamical simulations of a turbulent cloud impinged by a plane-parallel ionization front. We find…
The origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a fundamental issue in the theory of star formation. It is generally fit with a composite power law. Some clues on the progenitors can be found in dense starless cores that have a…
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…
We investigate the time evolution and spatial variation of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in star-forming disk galaxies by using chemodynamical simulations with an IMF model depending both on local densities and metallicities…
We propose a model for the density statistics in supersonic turbulence, which play a crucial role in star-formation and the physics of the interstellar medium (ISM). Motivated by [Hopkins, MNRAS, 430, 1880 (2013)], the model considers the…
Dust formation in brown dwarf atmospheres is studied by utilising a model for driven turbulence in the mesoscopic scale regime. We apply a pseudo-spectral method where waves are created and superimposed within a limited wavenumber interval.…
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…