Princeton University Star Formation/ISM Rendezvous (SFIR)

Studying GMCs within their galactic context is important to understand the origin of their internal dynamics and their connection to the local environment. We therefore perform high resolution simulations of the ISM in interesting dynamic environments to stress-test the reaction of the molecular gas to these complex configurations. In particular we examine the gas response to a galaxy encounter on one hand and ISM dynamics in the presence of a galactic bar on the other hand. 

In the former case we explore GMC properties in an interacting M51-like galaxy system. Here two prominent tidally induced spiral arms appear and we study how this large-scale morphological change affects the local molecular gas. In the case of the galactic bar, our object of interest is the central region of our own Milky Way and we try to explain the complex interplay between gas dynamics and the bar in this region.