Fractal Structures Driven by Self-Gravity: Molecular clouds and the Universe
arXiv:astro-ph/9804048 · doi:10.1023/A:1008370831608
Abstract
In the interstellar medium, as well as in the Universe, large density fluctuations are observed, that obey power-law density distributions and correlation functions. These structures are hierarchical, chaotic, turbulent, but are also self-organizing. The apparent disorder is not random noise, but can be described by a fractal, with a deterministic fractal dimension. We discuss the theories advanced to describe these fractal structures, and in particular a new theory of the self-gravity thermodynamics, that could explain their existence, and predict their fractal dimension. The media obeying scaling laws can be considered critical, as in second order phase transitions for instance.
37 pages, 3 figures, lecture at "Chaotic Dynamics of Gravitational Systems", Les Arcs 2000, to be published in Celestical Mechanics
References in corpus (1)
Cited by in corpus (6)
- Properties of the Interstellar Medium and the Propagation of Cosmic Rays in the Galaxy
- Lumpy Structures in Self-Gravitating Disks
- Long-Range Correlations in Self-Gravitating N-Body Systems
- Effect of angular momentum on equilibrium properties of a self-gravitating system
- Fractal Approach to Large-Scale Galaxy Distribution
- Millennium Simulation Dark Matter Haloes: Multi-fractal and Lacunarity Analysis with Homogeneity Transition