Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:51:53.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Non-stellar sources of turbulence in the interstellar medium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Eve C. Ostriker
Eve C. Ostriker*
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA email: ostriker@astro.umd.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Turbulence is believed to be important to star formation both within GMCs (affecting the IMF and the SFE), and on larger scales in the ISM (affecting GMC formation rates and properties). The traditional view of the ISM attributes most of the turbulent driving to stellar sources – in particular, supernovae and HII regions. However, evidence suggests that sources other than star formation must contribute significantly to large-scale turbulent driving in the diffuse ISM, thus also affecting the turbulence that GMCs inherit. I review recent investigations of alternative sources proposed for driving ISM turbulence, including thermal instabilities, the magnetorotational instability, large-scale self-gravitating modes, and instabilities in spiral shocks. I summarize results based on numerical simulations regarding the levels of turbulence that can be driven, and how these amplitudes depend on galactic conditions. This recent work shows that, under certain circumstances, very large-amplitude (trans-sonic with respect to the warm gas) motions and magnetic fields can be driven even without stellar energy inputs. Since turbulence can either trigger or limit star formation, understanding these potentially large non-stellar driving sources is crucial for a developing a theory of star formation regulation in the Milky Way and other disk galaxies.

Keywords

ISM: kinematics and dynamicsISM: magnetic fieldsmethods: numericalturbulencemagnetohydrodynamics
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Symposium S237: Triggered Star Formation in a Turbulent ISM , August 2006 , pp. 70 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

Balbus, S. A., & Hawley, J. F. 1991, ApJ 376, 214CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandenburg, A., Korpi, M. J., & Mee, A. J. 2006, astro-ph/0604244Google Scholar
Dickey, J. M., Hanson, M. M., & Helou, G. 1990, ApJ 352, 522CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elmegreen, B. G., & Parravano, A. 1994, ApJ 435, L121CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, G. B. 1965, ApJ 142, 531CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, G.B., Goldsmith, D. W., & Habing, H. J. 1969, ApJ 155, 149CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gómez, G. C., & Cox, D. P. 2002, ApJ 580, 235CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gómez, G. C., & Cox, D. P. 2004, ApJ 615, 744CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heiles, C., & Troland, T. H. 2003, ApJ 586, 1067CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heiles, C., & Troland, T. H. 2005, ApJ 624, 773CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanasz, M., Kowal, G., Otmianowska-Mazur, K., & Lesch, H. 2004, ApJ 605, L33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennicutt, R. C. Jr. 1989, ApJ 344, 685CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, W.,-T. & Ostriker, E. C. 2002, ApJ 570, 132CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, W.,-T. & Ostriker, E. C. 2006, ApJ 646, 213CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, W.-T. & Ostriker, E. C. 2006, ApJ submittedGoogle Scholar
Kim, C.-G., Kim, W.-T., & Ostriker, E. C. 2006, ApJ 649, L13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, W.,-T., Ostriker, E. C., & Stone, J. M. 2003, ApJ 599, 1157CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koyama, H., & Inutsuka, S.-I 2006, astro-ph/0605528Google Scholar
Martin, C. L., & Kennicutt, R. C. Jr. 2001, ApJ 555, 301CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martos, M. A., & Cox, D. P. 1998, ApJ 509, 703CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piontek, R. A., & Ostriker, E. C. 2004, ApJ 601, 905CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piontek, R. A., & Ostriker, E. C. 2005, ApJ 629, 849CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piontek, R. A., & Ostriker, E. C. 2006, ApJ submittedGoogle Scholar
Quirk, W. J. 1972, ApJ 176, L9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, W. W. 1969, ApJ 158, 123CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaye, J. 2004, ApJ 609, 667CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sellwood, J. A., & Balbus, S. A. 1999, ApJ 511, 660CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shetty, R., & Ostriker, E. C. 2006, ApJ 647, 997CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitzer, L. 1978, New York Wiley-Interscience, 1978Google Scholar
vanZee, Liese Zee, Liese, & Bryant, J. 1999, AJ 118, 2172CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfire, M. G., Hollenbach, D., McKee, C. F., Tielens, A. G., G. M. & Bakes, E. L. O. 1995, ApJ 443, 152CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfire, M. G., McKee, C. F., Hollenbach, D., & Tielens, A. G. G. M. 2003, ApJ 587, 278CrossRefGoogle Scholar