Physical description of turbulent and gravitationally bound structures in molecular clouds in relation to the modeling of the general cloud structure

• Applicant: Professor Ralf Klessen, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: since 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 284134682

The molecular clouds (MCs) are the natal environment for star formation. The proposed Project is focused mainly on their early evolutionary stage which precedes local gravitational collapse(s). It aims to deepen our understanding on the dense structures (clumps) in MCs that might be progenitors of stars or stellar clusters and on the link between clump physical characteristics and general cloud structure. Two main objectives of this Project are: i) modeling of MC general structure and derivation of the mass distributions of clumps and prestellar cores as integral components of the model; and, ii) methodological comparison between widely used clump-finding techniques applied to high-quality observational and numerical data which would enable iterative elaboration of the statistical approach for clump description. The first objective is to be achieved through alternative formulation of the statistical approach for clump description as well through exploring the properties of the volume- and column-density distributions in real clouds or in numerical datasets obtained from simulations of turbulent interstellar media with gravity. An extension of the statistical approach to describe self-gravitating prestellar cores is also foreseen. The second objective of the Project is to be achieved through in-depth study of characteristics of clumps detected by use of the algorithms Gaussclumps and Dendrograms which are based on different physical premises.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Bulgaria
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Sava Donkov; Privatdozent Dr. Orlin Stanchev; Professor Todor Veltchev, Ph.D.