Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium

By Ralf Klessen, S. Glover. 2014

269 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Interstellar space is filled with a dilute mixture of charged particles, atoms, molecules and dust grains, called the interstellar medium (ISM). Understanding its physical properties and dynamical behavior is of pivotal importance to many areas of astronomy and astrophysics. Galaxy formation and evolution, the formation of stars, cosmic nucleosynthesis, the origin of large complex, prebiotic molecules and the abundance, structure and growth of dust grains which constitute the fundamental building blocks of planets, all these processes are intimately coupled to the physics of the interstellar medium. However, despite its importance, its structure and evolution is still not fully understood. Observations reveal that the interstellar medium is highly turbulent, consists of different chemical phases, and is characterized by complex structure on all resolvable spatial and temporal scales. Our current numerical and theoretical models describe it as a strongly coupled system that is far from equilibrium and where the different components are intricately linked together by complex feedback loops. Describing the interstellar medium is truly a multi-scale and multi-physics problem. In these lecture notes we introduce the microphysics necessary to better understand the interstellar medium. We review the relations between large-scale and small-scale dynamics, we consider turbulence as one of the key drivers of galactic evolution, and we review the physical processes that lead to the formation of dense molecular clouds and that govern stellar birth in their interior.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/70c00210d2a525e7ef7c8ff55c195e13abf744dd

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Citations in the corpus

Observational Signatures of Particle Acceleration in Supernova Remnants (2012, background): “For a long time, the ionization of the interstellar medium by CRs has been considered an important factor in the phases of the interstellar medium (Field et al., 1969; Spitzer, 1978).”
Turbulent molecular clouds (2012, background): “Another way for filament formation is by gravitational instabilities of self-gravitating layers, as shown for example by Spitzer (1978) and Nagai et al. (1998).”
Early galaxy formation and its large-scale effects (2018, background): “All these processes are thoroughly discussed in the classical book by Spitzer [124].”
Global hierarchical collapse in molecular clouds. Towards a comprehensive scenario (2019, unknown): “The GHC regime differs strongly from the so-called gravoturbulent (GT) scenario (e.g., Vázquez-Semadeni et al. 2003a; Mac Low & Klessen 2004; Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2007; Hennebelle & Falgarone 2012; Hopkins 2012; Klessen & Glover 2016) in that it is intrinsically evolutionary.”
xGASS: total cold gas scaling relations and molecular-to-atomic gas ratios of galaxies in the local Universe (2018, background): “…Brinks 1990; Wolfire et al. 1995; Kalberla & Kerp 2009); molecular hydrogen is found in dense clouds with lower temperatures (T ∼ 10–20 K; Brinks 1990; Klessen & Glover 2016). this prediction with GASS is hampered by the presence of massive bulges, which could influence gas content as well (e.g.…”
A far-infrared survey of bow shocks and detached shells around AGB stars and red supergiants (Corrigendum) (2011, background): “Only recently, infrared space telescopes such as Spitzer and AKARI reveal much more detail on the infrared signatures of bow shocks around evolved stars, such as R Hya (Ueta et al. 2006), α Ori (Ueta et al. 2008), R Cas (Hashimoto & Izumiura 1998; Ueta et al. 2010), and U Hya (Izumiura et al. 2011).”
Theoretical Challenges in Galaxy Formation (2016, background): “The momentum input by direct absorption of UV photons (single scattering) seems sub-dominant (Arthur et al. 2004, Krumholz & Matzner 2009, Mathews 1969, Sales et al. 2014, Spitzer 1978).”
The SILCC project - III. Regulation of star formation and outflows by stellar winds and supernovae (2016, background): “Stellar feedback may drive supersonic turbulent motions in the ISM gas (see e.g. Klessen & Glover 2016).”