Invited Presentation

Turbulent Beginnings: A Predictive Theory of Star Formation in the Interstellar Medium

Author(s): Blakesley Burkhart (CfA)

Presenter: Blakesley Burkhart (Harvard)

Our current view of the interstellar medium (ISM) is as a multiphase environment where magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence affects many key processes. These include star formation, cosmic ray acceleration, and the evolution of structure in the diffuse ISM. In this talk, I will demonstrate how the star formation rate can be analytically calculated from our understanding of how turbulence, magnetic fields, and gravity induced density fluctuations in the ISM via a probability distribution function analysis. This analytic calculation predicts star formation rates from pc size scales (GMCs) to kpc size scales in galaxies.