CONDENSATIONS IN A SELF-GRAVITATING FLOW - FROM GRAVITO-ACOUSTIC WAVES TO BOUND STRUCTURES

To understand the transition in the interstellar medium from a diffuse distribution of matter to a more clumpy distribution, we study the ev olution of a set of self-gravitating polytropic vortices via two-dimen sinal numerical simulations. The relevant parameters are the Mach, Jea ns and Reynolds numbers. By increasing the Jeans number up to unity, t he departure from quasi-linear gravito-acoustic oscillations is follow ed and the formation of transient or stable condensations around criti cal points of the flow are observed.