Formation of star-forming clouds from the magnetised, diffuse interstellar medium
arXiv:1509.03436
Abstract
Molecular clouds, the birthplaces of stars in galaxies, form dynamically from the diffuse atomic gas of the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is also threaded by magnetic fields which have a large impact on its dynamics. In particular, star forming regions must be magnetically supercrit- ical in order to accomodate gas clumps which can collapse under their own weight. Based on a parameter study of three dimensional magneto-hydrodyamical (MHD) simulations, we show that the long-standing problem of how such supercritical regions are generated is still an open issue.
Invited contribution to the NIC proceedings 2016 for the John von Neumann-Institut für Computing (NIC) Symposium 2016