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Cloud fluid models of gas dynamics and star formation in galaxiesThe large dynamic range of star formation in galaxies, and the apparently complex environmental influences involved in triggering or suppressing star formation, challenges the understanding. The key to this understanding may be the detailed study of simple physical models for the dominant nonlinear interactions in interstellar cloud systems. One such model is described, a generalized Oort model cloud fluid, and two simple applications of it are explored. The first of these is the relaxation of an isolated volume of cloud fluid following a disturbance. Though very idealized, this closed box study suggests a physical mechanism for starbursts, which is based on the approximate commensurability of massive cloud lifetimes and cloud collisional growth times. The second application is to the modeling of colliding ring galaxies. In this case, the driving processes operating on a dynamical timescale interact with the local cloud processes operating on the above timescale. The results is a variety of interesting nonequilibrium behaviors, including spatial variations of star formation that do not depend monotonically on gas density.
Document ID
19870014896
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Struck-Marcell, Curtis
(Iowa State Univ. of Science and Technology Ames, IA, United States)
Scalo, John M.
(Texas Univ. Austin., United States)
Appleton, P. N.
(Iowa State Univ. of Science and Technology Ames, IA, United States)
Date Acquired
September 5, 2013
Publication Date
May 1, 1987
Publication Information
Publication: NASA, Washington Star Formation in Galaxies
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Accession Number
87N24329
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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