Gravoturbulent Star Cluster Formation

Abstract

Stars form by gravoturbulent fragmentation of interstellar gas clouds. The supersonic turbulence ubiquitously observed in Galactic molecular gas generates strong density fluctuations with gravity taking over in the densest and most massive regions. Collapse sets in to build up stars and star clusters. Turbulence plays a dual role. On global scales it provides support, while at the same time it can promote local collapse. Stellar birth is thus intimately linked to the dynamical behavior of parental gas cloud, which determines when and where protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass via accretion from the surrounding cloud material to build up stars. Slow, inefficient, isolated star formation is a hallmark of turbulent support, whereas fast, efficient, clustered star formation occurs in its absence. The fact that Galactic molecular clouds are highly filamentary can be explained by a combination of compressional flows and shear. The dynamical evolution of nascent star clusters is very complex. This strongly influences the stellar mass spectrum. The equation of state (EOS) plays a pivotal role in the fragmentation process. Under typical cloud conditions, massive stars form as part of dense clusters. However, for gas with effective polytropic index greater than unity star formation becomes biased towards isolated massive stars, which may be of relevance for understanding Pop III stars.