Turbulent molecular clouds

By P. Hennebelle, E. Falgarone. 2012

252 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Stars form within molecular clouds but our understanding of this fundamental process remains hampered by the complexity of the physics that drives their evolution. We review our observational and theoretical knowledge of molecular clouds trying to confront the two approaches wherever possible. After a broad presentation of the cold interstellar medium and molecular clouds, we emphasize the dynamical processes with special focus to turbulence and its impact on cloud evolution. We then review our knowledge of the velocity, density and magnetic fields. We end by openings towards new chemistry models and the links between molecular cloud structure and star-formation rates.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Organic Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b8b2c9c0685d925b85bd9e86de2930bb927e9303

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Citations in the corpus

Global hierarchical collapse in molecular clouds. Towards a comprehensive scenario (2019, background): “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.”
Planck intermediate results: XXXV. Probing the role of the magnetic field in the formation of structure in molecular clouds (2015, unknown): “These limitations have been particularly critical when integrating magnetic ﬁelds into the general picture of MC dynamics (Elmegreen & Scalo 2004; Crutcher 2012; Heiles & Haverkorn 2012; Hennebelle & Falgarone 2012).”
PRISM (Polarized Radiation Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission): an extended white paper (2013, background): “ newly formed stars on their parent clouds. 8.2 Galactic magnetic ﬁeld and star formation Star formation results from the action of gravity, counteracted by thermal, magnetic, and turbulent pressures [88]. For stars to form, gravity must locally become the dominant force. This happens when the turbu”
The big problems in star formation: The star formation rate, stellar clustering, and the initial mass function (2014, background): “…(Klessen et al. 2011), observations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies (Kennicutt & Evans 2012), and a number of other much more detailed topics (e.g., Hennebelle & Falgarone 2012; Kruijssen 2014; Dobbs et al. 2014; Offner et al. 2014; Padoan et al. 2014; Krumholz et al. 2014; Tan et al. 2014).”
AN IMPRINT OF MOLECULAR CLOUD MAGNETIZATION IN THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE DUST POLARIZED EMISSION (2013, methodology): “However, the interaction between supersonic turbulence and magnetic field which produces the final configuration of B and density structures is still the subject of active research (Klessen 2011; Schneider et al. 2011; Hennebelle & Falgarone 2012).”
On the universality of interstellar filaments: theory meets simulations and observations (2015, background): “Turbulence is a key for star formation (Mac Low & Klessen 2004; Elmegreen & Scalo 2004; McKee & Ostriker 2007; Hennebelle & Falgarone 2012; Hopkins 2013; Krumholz 2014; Padoan et al. 2014), so most of our simulations include a turbulence driving module1 that produces turbulence similar to what is…”
A sub-parsec resolution simulation of the Milky Way: global structure of the interstellar medium and properties of molecular clouds (2013, methodology): “…introduced by the polytrope are in agreement with the non-thermal values measured in molecular clouds, at the parsec and subparsec scales (see Hennebelle & Falgarone 2012, their figure 5). c© 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000–000 • The formation of a bar triggers the appearance of inner Lindblad…”
Molecular Clouds in the Milky Way (2015, background): “…the Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics and elsewhere that discuss the molecular ISM in relation to star formation (McKee & Ostriker 2007, Hennebelle & Falgarone 2012, Kennicutt & Evans 2012, Krumholz 2014); interstellar turbulence (Scalo & Elmegreen 2004, Elmegreen & Scalo 2004); cold,…”
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF MOLECULAR CLOUDS FOR THE ENTIRE MILKY WAY DISK (2016, methodology): “However, we are unable to evaluate whether is constant through scales in individual clouds, as was done in Hennebelle & Falgarone (2012).”