Related papers: The Turbulent Interstellar Medium
I review recent results derived from numerical simulations of the turbulent interstellar medium (ISM), in particular concerning the nature and formation of turbulent clouds, methods for comparing the structure in simulations and…
Recent numerical simulations of the interstellar medium driven by energy input from supernovae and stellar winds indicate that HI clouds can be formed by compression in shock waves and colliding turbulent streams without any help from…
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…
We review the properties of turbulent molecular clouds (MCs), focusing on the physical processes that influence star formation (SF). MC formation appears to occur during large-scale compression of the diffuse ISM driven by supernovae,…
Supersonic turbulence is a large reservoir of suprathermal energy in the interstellar medium. Its dissipation, because it is intermittent in space and time, can deeply modify the chemistry of the gas. We further explore a hybrid method to…
Recent progress in the understanding of star formation is summarized. A consistent picture is emerging where molecular clouds form with turbulent velocity fields and clumpy substructure, imprinted already during their formation. The clouds…
In order to investigate the origin of the interstellar turbulence, detailed observations in the CO J=1--0 and 3--2 lines have been carried out in an interacting region of a molecular cloud with an HII region. As a result, several 1,000 to…
We present an analytical model of the relation between the surface density of gas and star formation rate in galaxies and clouds, as a function of the presence of supersonic turbulence and the associated structure of the interstellar…
Interstellar turbulence is driven over a wide range of scales by processes including spiral arm instabilities and supernovae, and it affects the rate and morphology of star formation, energy dissipation, and angular momentum transfer in…
"The purpose of numerical models is not numbers but insight." (Hamming) In the spirit of this adage, and of Don Cox's approach to scientific speaking, we discuss the questions that the latest generation of numerical models of the…
Context. Traditionally, supersonic turbulence is considered to be one of the most likely mechanisms to slow down the gravitational collapse in dense clumps, thereby enabling the formation of massive stars. However, several recent studies…
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…
This study is motivated by recent observations on the ubiquitous interstellar density filaments and guided by the modern theory of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. The interstellar turbulence shapes the observed density structure. The…
The cold diffuse interstellar medium must harbor pockets of hot gas to produce the large observed abundances of molecular species, the formation of which require much more energy than available in the bulk of its volume. These hot spots…
Supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds is a dominant agent that strongly affects the clouds' evolution and star formation activity. Turbulence may be initiated and maintained by a number of processes, acting at a wide range of physical…
Turbulence, self-gravity, and cooling convert most of the interstellar medium into cloudy structures that form stars. Turbulence compresses the gas into clouds directly and it moves pre-existing clouds around passively when there are…
Using 3D MHD simulation with the effects of radiative cooling/heating, chemical reactions, and thermal conduction, we investigate the formation of molecular cloud in the ISM. We consider the formation of molecular cloud by accretion of the…
The supernova-driven interstellar medium in star-forming galaxies has Reynolds numbers of the order of $10^{6}$ or even larger. We study, by means of adaptive mesh refinement hydro- and magnetohydrodynamical simulations that cover the full…
The observational record of turbulence within the molecular gas phase of the interstellar medium is summarized. We briefly review the analysis methods used to recover the velocity structure function from spectroscopic imaging and the…
In the multi-scale view of the star formation process the material flows from large molecular clouds down to clumps and cores. In this paradigm it is still unclear if it is gravity or turbulence that drives the observed supersonic…