The secret life of over-dense regions in interstellar turbulence

The initial conditions for star formation are embedded in the fractal gas density structures produced by supersonic, magnetised turbulence. We understand in a lot of detail relations between the global statistical properties and moments of the gas density field. However, we do not understand the local properties of the densest regions, which are just as, if not more important than the global properties, for understanding the star formation process. Roberston & Goldreich (2018) demonstrated how to identify, cluster and track in time over-dense regions by using a mixture of Lagrangian and Eulerian plasma statistics, unveiling a host of important properties of the dense regions in hydrodynamical turbulence. In this project we will do the same for magnetohydrodynamical turbulence, with the student contributing to a clustering and local statistical analysis code that has already been written by Dr. James Beattie. With some further software development, we will add time tracking, and the ability to generalise this code to other interesting structures in the magnetised turbulence, such as current sheets. There will also be opportunities to do an analytical analysis of the local statistical properties, such as the density profile, of the regions as the project progresses. This project will lead to significantly better understanding of not only the initial conditions for star formation, but also the role of strong gas density fluctuations in a magnetised, turbulent medium.