Lanterna Rally

Author: Riwaj Pokhrel

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

In this dissertation, I explore fragmentation physics in multiple scales in nearby molecular clouds and discuss some implications of fragmentation for cloud structure formation and star formation, primarily by analyzing multi-wavelength observations of dust emission. First, I tested the complete thermal and combined thermal and nonthermal support mechanisms that balance gravitational contraction at multiple scales in the Perseus molecular cloud. I found that the observed multiscale structures in Perseus are consistent with an inefficient thermal Jeans fragmentation, where the Jeans efficiency increases from the largest scale ($\gtrsim$10s of pc) to the smallest scale ($\sim$10s of AU). Next, I studied the effect of the formation of dense self-gravitating structures and star formation on the gas distribution in terms of its column density distribution function (N-PDF). I found that the evolutionary effect of clouds has corresponding changes on the N-PDF functional form, with a lognormal shape in diffuse regions that have negligible star formation, a lognormal and two power-laws in denser regions with moderate star formation, and a lognormal and one power-law in the densest regions with highly efficient clustered star formation. Finally, I explored the variations of star and gas surface densities in twelve molecular clouds using various techniques. I found that the stellar mass surface density of the recently formed stars varies as the square of the gas mass surface density in all twelve clouds. Also, I do not find any evidence of a column density threshold for efficient star formation.