Interstellar Turbulence

D. Falceta-Goncalves

Published 2011-02-01Version 1

The Interstellar Medium (ISM) is a complex, multi-phase system, where the history of the stars occurs. The processes of birth and death of stars are strongly coupled to the dynamics of the ISM. The observed chaotic and diffusive motions of the gas characterize its turbulent nature. Understanding turbulence is crucial for understanding the star-formation process and the energy-mass feedback from evolved stars. Magnetic fields, threading the ISM, are also observed, making this effort even more difficult. In this work, I briefly review the main observations and the characterization of turbulence from these observable quantities. Following on, I provide a review of the physics of magnetized turbulence. Finally, I will show the main results from theoretical and numerical simulations, which can be used to reconstruct observable quantities, and compare these predictions to the observations.