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Turbulence in the molecular interstellar medium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Mark H. Heyer  and
Chris Brunt
Mark H. Heyer
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA email: heyer@astro.umass.edu
Chris Brunt
Affiliation:
School of Physics, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, EX4 4QL, United Kingdom email: brunt@astro.ex.ac.uk
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Abstract

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The observational record of turbulence within the molecular gas phase of the interstellar medium is summarized. We briefly review the analysis methods used to recover the velocity structure function from spectroscopic imaging and the application of these tools on sets of cloud data. These studies identify a near-invariant velocity structure function that is independent of the local environment and star formation activity. Such universality accounts for the cloud-to-cloud scaling law between the global line-width and size of molecular clouds found by Larson (1981) and constrains the degree to which supersonic turbulence can regulate star formation. In addition, the evidence for large scale driving sources necessary to sustain supersonic flows is summarized.

Keywords

interstellar turbulencemolecular ISMstar formation
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Symposium S237: Triggered Star Formation in a Turbulent ISM , August 2006 , pp. 9 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

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