Poster abstract

The formation of stars in molecular clouds begins with the fragmentation and collapse of clumps and cores, either through simple self gravitational collapse or triggered by an external event. The star formation activity within a given cloud is specific to that cloud, where the imprints of the initial conditions are often still seen in the properties of the gas and dust of young protoclusters. We present our work in the Serpens Main Cluster, a young protocluster whose gas emission provides evidence for the event which triggered the most recent star forming episode. We studied its gas properties using CO isotopologues from which we proposed a scenario for the star formation trigger, tested further with SPH simulations. We are extending this work to other regions within the Gould Belt with a variety of star forming efficiencies, in search of the particular physical properties and dynamics of a molecular cloud that allow or prevent clouds to be in the verge of forming stars.