From Molecular Clouds to the IMF: Spatial and Temporal Effects

Shantanu Basu, Sayantan Auddy

Published 2017-10-17Version 1

We review star formation in molecular clouds and describe why magnetic fields may be important and how they can influence filamentary structure and the column density probability distribution function (PDF). We also comment on the origin of the stellar and substellar initial mass function (IMF), which may require explanations beyond a simple Jeans length argument in turbulent molecular clouds. A mathematical model of the modified lognormal power-law (MLP) distribution function provides a framework within which to connect accretion processes with the IMF.