Poster abstract

We present results from numerical simulations of dense core formation in converging, turbulent flows within Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs). Filamentary high density regions form in the post-shock layer because of converging flows initiated by turbulence and enhanced by self-gravity. Dense cores form and evolve inside these filaments. The core building and collapse stages which were identified in 1D spherical simulations are again seen in the non-spherical case. The velocity dispersion is low in high density filaments and even lower in dense cores. We also show that cores identified from the gravitational potential of surface density are comparable to cores identified by the gravitational potential of volume density. We find that the median core mass is proportional to the inverse of the Mach number of the large-scale converging flows. This result can be understood analytically based on gravitational instability in shocked layers. The first core forms at a time that varies inversely as the square root of the Mach number; this can also be understood analytically.