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 …

Context. Density and velocity fluctuations on virtually all scales observed with modern
telescopes show that molecular clouds (MCs) are turbulent. The forcing and structural …

The probability density function (PDF) of the gas density in turbulent supersonic flows is
investigated with high-resolution numerical simulations. In a systematic study, we compare …

We derive an analytical theory of the prestellar core initial mass function (IMF) based on an
extension of the Press-Schechter statistical formalism. Our approach relies on the general …

We compare the statistics of driven, supersonic turbulence at a high Mach number using
flash, a widely used Eulerian grid-based code, and phantom, a Lagrangian smoothed …

Context. Filaments are ubiquitous in the interstellar medium, as recently emphasized by
Herschel, yet their physical origin remains elusiveAims. It is therefore important to …

In a systematic study, we compare the density statistics in high-resolution numerical
experiments of supersonic isothermal turbulence, driven by the usually adopted solenoidal …

We perform calculations of isolated disc galaxies to investigate how the properties of the
interstellar medium (ISM), the nature of molecular clouds and the global star formation rate …

We present observational evidence of a correlation between the high-mass slope of the
stellar initial mass function (IMF) in young star clusters and their stellar surface density, σ …

We investigate the formation of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in spiral galaxies through
both agglomeration of clouds in the spiral arms, and self gravity. The simulations presented …