Fragmentation of Molecular Clouds: The Initial Phase of a Stellar Cluster

Abstract

Using smoothed particle hydrodynamics in combination with the special-purpose hardware device GRAPE, we follow the fragmentation process and dynamical evolution in the interior of molecular clouds until most of the gas is converted to form a cluster of protostellar cores. The properties of this protostellar cluster are compared to observational data from star forming regions.

4 pages including three figures, LaTeX, to appear in the proceedings to the Riken Symposium on Supercomputing, held September 1 --3 1997 in Tokyo, (resolution of fig. 1 has been degraded to fit size requirements)