Related papers: Turbulence in the Molecular Interstellar Medium
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…
Star formation is primarily controlled by the interplay between gravity, turbulence, and magnetic fields. However, the turbulence and magnetic fields in molecular clouds near the Galactic Center may differ substantially from spiral-arm…
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…
Two competing models, gravitational instability-driven transport and stellar feedback, have been proposed to interpret the high velocity dispersions observed in high-redshift galaxies. We study the major mechanisms to drive the turbulence…
Turbulence is thought to be a primary driving force behind the early stages of star formation. In this framework large, self gravitating, turbulent clouds fragment into smaller clouds which in turn fragment into even smaller ones. At the…
We present numerical simulations of the passage of clumpy gas through a galactic spiral shock and the subsequent formation of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). The spiral shock forms dense clouds while dissipating kinetic energy, producing…
Guided by the duality of turbulence (random versus coherent we seek coherent structures in the turbulent velocity field of molecular clouds, anticipating their importance in cloud evolution. We analyse a large map (40' by 20') obtained with…
The nature of turbulence in molecular clouds is one of the key parameters that control star formation efficiency: compressive motions, as opposed to solenoidal motions, can trigger the collapse of cores, or mark the expansion of Hii…
Stars and planets are formed inside dense interstellar molecular clouds, by processes imprinted on the 3-dimensional (3D) morphology of the clouds. Determining the 3D structure of interstellar clouds remains challenging, due to projection…
Several topics in the theory of magnetized turbulence are reviewed with application to star formation and the interstellar medium. The density, pressure, and temperature distribution in a turbulent interstellar medium is described in…
Externally driven interstellar turbulence plays an important role in shaping the density structure in molecular clouds. Here we study the dynamical role of internally driven turbulence in a self-gravitating molecular cloud core. Depending…
It is believed that turbulence may have a significant impact on star formation and the dynamics and evolution of the molecular clouds in which this occurs. It is also known that non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic effects influence the nature of…
The gas-phase velocity dispersions in disk galaxies, which trace turbulence in the interstellar medium, are observed to increase with lookback time. However, the mechanisms that set this rise in turbulence are observationally poorly…
We use 3-dimensional numerical simulations of self-gravitating compressible turbulent gas in combination with Lagrangian tracer particles to investigate the mixing process of molecular hydrogen (H2) in interstellar clouds. Tracer particles…
The Galactic interstellar turbulence affects the density distribution and star formation. We introduce a new method of measuring interstellar turbulent density spectra by using the dispersion measures (DMs) of a large sample of pulsars.…
The interstellar medium is a multi-phase, magnetized, and highly turbulent medium. In this paper, we address both theoretical and observational aspects of plasma turbulence in the interstellar medium. We successively consider radio wave…
We review how supersonic turbulence can both prevent and promote the collapse of molecular clouds into stars. First we show that decaying turbulence cannot significantly delay collapse under conditions typical of molecular clouds,…
Star formation in galaxies is inefficient, and understanding how star formation is regulated in galaxies is one of the most fundamental challenges of contemporary astrophysics. Radiative cooling, feedback from supernovae and active galactic…
Molecular clouds are a fundamental ingredient of galaxies: they are the channels that transform the diffuse gas into stars. The detailed process of how they do it is not completely understood. We review the current knowledge of molecular…
The gas motions in the intracluster medium (ICM) are governed by stratified turbulence. Stratified turbulence is fundamentally different from Kolmogorov (isotropic, homogeneous) turbulence; kinetic energy not only cascades from large to…