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Turbulent convection is thought to act as an effective viscosity ($\nu_E$) in damping tidal flows in stars and giant planets. However, the efficiency of this mechanism has long been debated, particularly in the regime of fast tides, when…
We present a model of star formation in self-gravitating turbulent gas. We treat the turbulent velocity $v_T$ as a dynamical variable, and assume that it is adiabatically heated by the collapse. The theory predicts the run of density,…
The most recent observational evidence seems to indicate that giant molecular clouds are predominantly gravitationally unbound objects. In this paper we show that this is a natural consequence of a scenario in which cloud-cloud collisions…
A new mean-field theory of turbulent convection is developed. This theory predicts the convective wind instability in a shear-free turbulent convection which causes formation of large-scale semi-organized fluid motions in the form of cells…
This paper reviews the essential physics of gravitational instability in a Robertson-Walker background spacetime. Three approaches are presented in a pedagogical manner, based on (1) the Eulerian fluid equations, (2) the Lagrangian…
Increasingly sophisticated observational tools and techniques are now being developed for probing the nature of interstellar turbulence. At the same time, theoretical advances in understanding the nature of turbulence and its effects on the…
The morphology and kinematics of molecular clouds (MCs) are best explained as the consequence of super--sonic turbulence. Super--sonic turbulence fragments MCs into dense sheets, filaments and cores and large low density ``voids'', via the…
Dense cores inherit turbulent motions from the interstellar medium in which they form. As a tool for comparison to both simulations and observations, it is valuable to construct theoretical core models that can relate their internal density…
The dynamical processes that control star formation in molecular clouds are not well understood, and in particular, it is unclear if rotation plays a major role in cloud evolution. We investigate the importance of rotation in cloud…
(Abridged) We describe the results of three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations designed to study turbulent convection in the stellar interiors, and compare them to stellar mixing-length theory (MLT). Simulations in 2D are significantly…
The role of supersonic turbulence in structuring the interstellar medium (ISM) remains an unsettled question. Here, this problem is investigated using a newexact law of compressible isothermal hydrodynamic turbulence, which involves…
Magnetic field fluctuations measured in the heliosheath by the Voyager spacecraft are often characterized as compressible, as indicated by a strong fluctuating component parallel to the mean magnetic field. However, the interpretation of…
The ultimate goal of a sound theory of turbulence in fluids is to close in a rational way the Reynolds equations, namely to express the tensor of turbulent stress as a function of the time average of the velocity field. Based on the idea…
Though flux freezing is a good approximation frequently assumed for molecular clouds, ambipolar diffusion (AD) is inevitable at certain scales. The scale at which AD sets in can be a crucial parameter for turbulence and the star formation…
The kinematics of newly-formed star clusters are interesting both as a probe of the state of the gas clouds from which the stars form, and because they influence planet formation, stellar mass segregation, cluster disruption, and other…
Using numerical simulations of the formation and evolution of stellar clusters within molecular clouds, we show that the stars in clusters formed within collapsing molecular cloud clumps exhibit a constant velocity dispersion regardless of…
We suggested a theory of clustering of inertial particles advected by a turbulent velocity field caused by an instability of their spatial distribution. The reason of the {\em clustering instability} is a combined effect of the particle…
We develop an analytic framework to understand fragmentation in turbulent, self-gravitating media. Previously, we showed some properties of turbulence can be predicted with the excursion-set formalism. Here, we generalize to fully…
We have investigated the degree to which turbulence in the Very Local Interstellar Clouds resembles the highly-studied turbulence in the solar corona and the solar wind. The turbulence diagnostics for the Local Clouds are the absorption…
{Filaments are ubiquitous in the interstellar medium as recently emphasized by Herschel, yet their physical origin remains elusive} {It is therefore important to understand the physics of molecular clouds to investigate how filaments form…