Talk abstract

Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are pristine molecular clouds, believed to be the progenitors of star clusters. By statistically analysing the mass and density distributions of the 11000 galactic IRDCs of the Peretto & Fuller (2009) catalogue we extract important insights on the initial conditions for star formation in the Galaxy. While the mass distributions of IRDCs and fragments, i.e. the single peaked sub-structures within IRDCs, are similar to CO clumps and core mass distributions, respectively, the fragment volume density distributions show behaviours in contrast with the initial assumptions of current star formation models. We will discuss these results in the context of the origin of the mass distribution of stars.