The Turbulent Shock Origin of Proto–Stellar Cores

Abstract

The fragmentation of molecular clouds (MC) into protostellar cores is a central aspect of the process of star formation. Because of the turbulent nature of supersonic motions in MCs, it has been suggested that dense structures such as laments and clumps are formed by shocks in a turbulent ow. In this work we present strong evidence in favor of the turbulent origin of the fragmentation of MCs. The most generic result of turbulent fragmentation is that dense postshock gas traces a gas component with a smaller velocity dispersion than lower density gas, since shocks correspond to regions of converging ows, where the kinetic energy of the turbulent motion is dissipated. Using synthetic maps of spectra of molecular transitions, computed from the results of numerical simulations of supersonic turbulence, we show that the dependence of velocity dispersion on gas density generates an observable relation between the rms velocity centroid and the integrated intensity (column density), which is indeed found in p(V 0