The Formation of Stars: From Clouds to Cores

High resolution simulations were conducted to investigate different stages of the star formation process, from molecular cloud formation to single protostellar collapse. The simulations were performed using AstroBEAR, a state-of-the-art, multiphysics, adaptive mesh refinement code for astrophysical fluid dynamics. In each of the cases, the fluid dynamical properties of the potentially star forming gas were investigated to reveal the relative roles of gravity, magnetic fields, turbulence, and shocks. The models successfully produce many of the structural characteristics of star forming regions. While the simulations modeled isolated, or semi-isolated, phases of the star formation process, cumulatively they represent over 5 orders of magnitude change in spatial scale. Insights provided from this work will aid the development and interpretation of the next generation of simulations -- those which will model star formation through the phases using self-consistent, hierarchical frameworks.