Related papers: Molecular Cloud Turbulence and Star Formation
We examine the idea that diffuse and giant molecular clouds and their substructure form as density fluctuations induced by large scale interstellar turbulence. We do this by investigating the topology of various fields in realistic…
The diffuse interstellar medium is dynamic, and its chemistry and evolution is determined by shock fronts as well as photodissociation. Shocks are implied by the supersonic motions and velocity dispersion often statistically called…
Feedback from protostellar outflows can influence the nature of turbulence in star forming regions even if they are not the primary source of velocity dispersion for all scales of molecular clouds. For the rate and power expected in star…
Supersonic flows in the interstellar medium (ISM) are believed to be a key driver of the molecular cloud formation and evolution. Among molecular clouds' properties, the ratio between the solenoidal and compressive modes of turbulence plays…
Using local 3D MHD simulations, we investigate ways in which galactic turbulence associated with the magnetorotational instability (MRI) may influence the formation and properties of GMCs. Our disk models are vertically stratified and…
Context. Molecular Clouds (MCs) are the place where stars are formed and their feedback starts to take place, regulating the evolution of galaxies. Therefore, MCs represent the critical scale at which to study how ultra-violet (UV) photons…
Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and their stellar offspring are the building blocks of galaxies. The physical characteristics of GMCs and their evolution are tightly connected to galaxy evolution. The macroscopic properties of the…
Stars and more particularly massive stars, have a drastic impact on galaxy evolution. Yet the conditions in which they form and collapse are still not fully understood. In particular, the influence of the magnetic field on the collapse of…
Supersonic turbulence fragments the interstellar medium into dense sheets, filaments, cores and large low density voids. The turbulence is driven on large scales, probably predominantly by supernovae. The scaling properties of supersonic…
The formation of molecular clouds out of HI gas is the first step toward star formation. Its metallicity dependence plays a key role to determine star formation through the cosmic history. Previous theoretical studies with detailed chemical…
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…
We derive and compare six theoretical models for the star formation rate (SFR) - the Krumholz & McKee (KM), Padoan & Nordlund (PN), and Hennebelle & Chabrier (HC) models, and three multi-freefall versions of these, suggested by HC - all…
We propose to interpret the stellar IMF as a property of the turbulence in the star--forming gas. Gravitationally unstable density enhancements in the turbulent flow collapse and form stars. Their mass distribution can be derived…
Molecular clouds are supported by turbulence and magnetic fields, but quantifying their influence on cloud lifecycle and star formation efficiency (SFE) remains an open question. We perform radiation MHD simulations of star-forming giant…
Radiation feedback from stellar clusters is expected to play a key role in setting the rate and efficiency of star formation in giant molecular clouds (GMCs). To investigate how radiation forces influence realistic turbulent systems, we…
Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) are dominated by supersonic turbulence, creating a complex network of shocks and filaments that regulate star formation. While the global inefficiency of star formation is well-observed, predicting exactly…
One of the outstanding puzzles about star formation is why it proceeds so slowly. Giant molecular clouds convert only a few percent of their gas into stars per free-fall time, and recent observations show that this low star formation rate…
We investigate star formation at very early evolutionary phases in five massive clouds in the inner 500 pc of the Galaxy, the Central Molecular Zone. Using interferometer observations of H$_2$O masers and ultra-compact H II regions, we find…
Supernova explosions inject a considerable amount of energy into the interstellar medium (ISM) in regions with high to moderate star formation rates. In order to assess whether the driving of turbulence by supernovae is also important in…
We present a systematic analysis of the velocity structure functions (VSFs) of 167 molecular clouds with angular sizes greater than $\sim$176 arcmin$^2$ in three sectors of the Galactic mid-plane. We calculated the 1st- to 3rd-order VSFs…