The formation of a star cluster: predicting the properties of stars and brown dwarfs

We present results from the largest numerical simulation of star formation to resolve the fragmentation process down to the opacity limit. The simulation follows the collapse and fragmentation of a large-scale turbulent molecular cloud to form a stellar cluster and, simultaneously, the formation of circumstellar discs and binary stars. This large range of scales enables us to predict a wide variety of stellar properties for comparison with observations. The calculation clearly demonstrates that star formation is a highly-dynamic and chaotic process. Star-disc encounters form binaries and truncate discs. Stellar encounters disrupt bound multiple systems. The cloud produces roughly equal numbers of stars and…