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Turbulent molecular clouds

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Abstract

Stars form within molecular clouds but our understanding of this fundamental process remains hampered by the complexity of the physics that drives their evolution. We review our observational and theoretical knowledge of molecular clouds trying to confront the two approaches wherever possible. After a broad presentation of the cold interstellar medium and molecular clouds, we emphasize the dynamical processes with special focus to turbulence and its impact on cloud evolution. We then review our knowledge of the velocity, density and magnetic fields. We end by openings towards new chemistry models and the links between molecular cloud structure and star-formation rates.

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Notes

  1. Here, as a tribute to the observers community, we introduce the poor and ill-defined concept of clump. Let us say that a clump has an average density larger (or even much larger) than that of the CNM at the ambient pressure, and, by contrast, the ICM has much lower densities.

  2. The first excited levels of ortho- and para-H2 lie at 510 K (J=2) and 1020 K (J=3), respectively, above the ground states J=0 and J=1.

  3. More precisely, this is expressed by the second term of the right hand side of Eq. (33) of Hennebelle and Chabrier (2008) that we do not write here for conciseness.

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Acknowledgement

This review is dedicated to the masters that opened the field in the early 1970s: Pat Thaddeus, Phil Solomon and Tom Phillips on the observations side and George Field on the theory side. We thank Alexei Kritsuk, Fred Lo, Frédéric Bournaud, Maryvonne Gerin, Pierre Lesaffre and Leo Blitz for a critical reading of the manuscript and for suggestions which have improved it.

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Correspondence to Edith Falgarone.

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Hennebelle, P., Falgarone, E. Turbulent molecular clouds. Astron Astrophys Rev 20, 55 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00159-012-0055-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00159-012-0055-y

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