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Almost all star formation is observed to occur within Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), making their dynamics and evolution a key part in understanding the formation of stars and star clusters in our universe. On the scales of these clouds it is believed that the main process regulating how efficient the star formation process is (how much gas is turned into stars) is energy injected by massive (>8 Msun) stars that acts to disrupt the cloud and halt star formation. However, these massive stars can inject energy in to their surroundings in many different ways: (i) their light pushing on dust grains, (ii) that dust re-radiating that light in the infrared which pushes on dust more, (iii) ionizing radiation heating the surrounding gas, and finally (iv) that energy being absorbed in the star’s own atmosphere resulting in massive, high velocity outflows from the star’s surface: stellar winds. How these mechanisms act to disperse GMCs and how they interact with one another, in particular which process is dominant and in which scenario, constitutes ongoing research and debate in the literature. In this talk I will address how the dynamics of stellar wind-driven bubbles are drastically modified when you consider their expansion into the realistic, turbulent environments of GMCs. |
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