A Statistical Model of the Formation of Stars and Interstellar Clouds.

Abstract

Oort’s (1954) model for the formation and destruction of interstellar clouds is formulated mathe- matically with simplifying assumptions. An equation for the time-dependent cloud-mass spectrum is obtained and solved. It is found that the rate of star formation is proportional to the square of the gas density, in agreement with Schmidt’s (1959) empirical model, and that the calculated proportionality constant agrees approximately with the observed value. The form of the cloud-mass spectrum, approxi- mately a nr*¡2 law, also agrees roughly with observation.