Turbulent molecular clouds

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current observational and theoretical understanding of turbulent molecular clouds, focusing on their physical properties, dynamics, and role in star formation, highlighting recent advances and future directions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive synthesis of observational data and theoretical models on turbulence and magnetic fields in molecular clouds, bridging gaps between approaches.

Findings

Turbulence significantly influences molecular cloud evolution.

Magnetic fields play a crucial role in cloud dynamics.

Links between cloud structure and star formation rates are emerging.

Abstract

Stars form within molecular clouds but our understanding of this fundamental process remains hampered by the complexity of the physics that drives their evolution. We review our observational and theoretical knowledge of molecular clouds trying to confront the two approaches wherever possible. After a broad presentation of the cold interstellar medium and molecular clouds, we emphasize the dynamical processes with special focus to turbulence and its impact on cloud evolution. We then review our knowledge of the velocity, density and magnetic fields. We end by openings towards new chemistry models and the links between molecular cloud structure and star--formation rates.