Abstract
Abstract Using the ZEUS-2D code modified for the purposes of cloud collapse calculations, we explore the dynamics of diffuse interstellar clouds of various masses and initial number densities. We show that heating and cooling processes in interstellar clouds may have a significant effect on their dynamical behaviour. Associated with opacity and photoelectric heating, temperature gradients in the interstellar clouds may assist gravity and lower the Jeans mass. We provide some novel results on how the thermal instability and thermal shock waves can help a low-density, gravitationally stable, diffuse interstellar cloud to evolve into a dense protostellar core which then collapses gravitationally to form a star.
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