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| EPoS Contribution |
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What the starless cores tell us about the physics of the ISM
Eric R. Keto Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, USA | |
| The starless cores are the simplest of all molecular clouds. Their density, temperature, chemistry, and dynamics can be described by very tractable physics. Despite this clarity, one of the intriguing aspects of the cores is that in different regimes or conditions, the same controlling physical processes result in cores of very different observational appearances that can all be accurately predicted. This variability allows us to use the cores as a laboratory to study the physical processes under different conditions in the ISM. This talk amounts to a mini-review of the most basic dynamical, radiative, and chemical processes of the ISM reduced to an economical austerity suitable for analyzing observations and deriving physical conditions. One of the advantages of the lecture format is the ability to show a side-by-side comparison between results presented in figures in other observational and theoretical papers and the predictions of a remarkably simple physical model. | |
| Collaborators: P. Caselli, Univ. Leeds, UK A. Broderick, CITA, CA C. Lada, CfA, USA R. Narayan, Harvard Univ., USA G. Field, CfA, USA |
Key publication
Suggested Session: Chemistry, Cores and Collapse |