Astronomy Tea Talks at Caltech

'The effect of dust-gas energetics on the star formation process'

The origin of the initial mass function has been a puzzle in the field of star
formation for many years. In order to get closer to solving this puzzle, we
use simulations on the scale of a young cluster to model the effect of young
stars on the molecular gas out of which they form. Through the use of simulations
and our dust-gas energetics algorithm, we can see how young stars affect their
environment and the subsequent birth of stars. We find that including dust-gas
energetics has a significant and realistic effect on the mass function.