Fractal Structures Driven by Self-Gravity: Molecular clouds and the Universe

Details Fractal Structures Driven by Self-Gravity: Molecular clouds and the Universe Fractal Structures Driven by Self-Gravity: Molecular clouds and the Universe

1998-04-05

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9804048v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

37 pages, 3 figures, lecture at "Chaotic Dynamics of Gravitational Systems", Les Arcs 2000, to be published in Celestical Mech

Scientific paper

10.1023/A:1008370831608

In the interstellar medium, as well as in the Universe, large density fluctuations are observed, that obey power-law density distributions and correlation functions. These structures are hierarchical, chaotic, turbulent, but are also self-organizing. The apparent disorder is not random noise, but can be described by a fractal, with a deterministic fractal dimension. We discuss the theories advanced to describe these fractal structures, and in particular a new theory of the self-gravity thermodynamics, that could explain their existence, and predict their fractal dimension. The media obeying scaling laws can be considered critical, as in second order phase transitions for instance.

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