The role of turbulence, magnetic fields and feedback for star formation

David Caro building, Level 6 Opat seminar room

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Yuxiang Qin

  • Dr Christoph Federrath
    Dr Christoph Federrath, Stromlo Fellow
    ANU

    Email: christoph.federrath[at]anu.edu.au

Abstract

Turbulence and magnetic fields determine the structure of the interstellar medium. In recent years we have developed a theoretical model of how this turbulence, magnetic fields, and feedback control the star formation rate. A critical step towards this theory is to understand the filamentary structure of molecular clouds and which physical processes give rise to the dense filaments within them. Here we show that the transition from supersonic to subsonic turbulence - the sonic scale - may determine crucial properties of the filaments, such as their widths, and how the sonic scale enters our derivation of star formation rates. I will also present results from the world's largest supersonic turbulence simulation, in which we measure the sonic scale, from which the the filament width and critical density for star formation is derived.