Star formation in giant molecular clouds

Details Star formation in giant molecular clouds Star formation in giant molecular clouds

Nov 1986

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986apj...310..189h&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 310, Nov. 1, 1986, p. 189-206.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

38

Interstellar Gas, Molecular Clouds, Nebulae, Star Formation, Angular Momentum, Momentum Transfer, Stellar Mass, Turbulence Effects

Scientific paper

The star cloud turbulence theory of molecular cloud turbulence and evolution is studied in detail, giving both numerical and analytic results. The evolution is dominated by angular momentum transfer and is followed until the clouds go into rapid gravitational collapse. This gravitoturbulent concept of giant molecular cloud complexes (GMCCs) is combined with a fractal description of the cloud distribution with scale. In this way a theory of noncoeval star formation is suggested and related the logarithmic initial mass function (IMF) index to properties of the molecular cloud distribution (the fractal dimension). Comparisons are made with existing observations. The process of star formation in the GMCs is found to be nonspace filling, having a fractal dimension smaller than three. The most likely value is 2.7, from which a value of 1.6 is inferred for the mass function index of the molecular clouds and for the upper end of the IMF.

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