Interstellar turbulence
The ubiquitous nature of turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) makes it a major ingredient in the early stages of star formation in galaxies. In particular, the relatively low strength of turbulence expected in the warm neutral medium (WNM) coupled to the thermal state of the gas suggests that thermal instabilities can grow freely to form cold dense structures observed in the cold neutral medium (CNM).
The aim of this project is to extend our observational understanding of the statistical properties of turbulence in all phases of the neutral medium, and their relationship to the formation of molecular clouds in galaxies. Part of this work is carried out with ROHSA which allows us to model the multiphase components of the neutral ISM, before analyzing them with various statistical tools.
Work in progress
Marchal et al. 2020 (in prep.) - Thermal and turbulent properties of the Warm Neutral Medium
The goal of this work is to develop a new methodology that can extract the thermal and turbulent properties of the warm diffuse phase of the neutral ISM. With these properties, this study aim to test theoretical predictions on the condensation criterion of the thermal instability, leading to the formation of CNM clumps and filaments.
Side Links
- Books (Peter Davidson)
- Review (Elmegreen and Scalo)
- ADS publications
- Thesis chapter
Stanley Corrsin (1961)
"Incompressible hydrodynamic turbulence is a spatially complex distribution of vorticity which advects itself in a chaotic manner. The vorticity field is random in both space and time, and exhibits a wide and continuous distribution of length and time scales."
