The Star Formation Rate of Molecular Clouds

Paolo Padoan, Christoph Federrath, G. Chabrier, Neal J. Evans II, Doug Johnstone, Jes K. Jørgensen, Christopher F. McKee, A Nordlund

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    Abstract

    We review recent advances in the analytical and numerical modeling of the star formation rate in molecular clouds and discuss the available observational constraints. We focus on molecular clouds as the fundamental star formation sites, rather than on the larger-scale processes that form the clouds and set their properties. Molecular clouds are shaped into a complex filamentary structure by supersonic turbulence, with only a small fraction of the cloud mass channeled into collapsing protostars over a free-fall time of the system. In recent years, the physics of supersonic turbulence has been widely explored with computer simulations, leading to statistical models of this fragmentation process, and to the prediction of the star formation rate as a function of fundamental physical parameters of molecular clouds, such as the virial parameter, the root mean square (rms) Mach number, the compressive fraction of the turbulence driver, and the ratio of gas to magnetic pressure. Infrared space telescopes, as well as groundbased observatories, have provided unprecedented probes of the filamentary structure of molecular clouds and the location of forming stars within them.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProtostars and Planets VI
    EditorsH Beuther, R S Klessen, C P Dullemond & T Henning
    Place of PublicationUSA
    PublisherUniversity of Arizona Press
    Pages77-100pp.
    Volume6
    Edition1st
    ISBN (Print)9780816531240
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

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