The precise mechanisms by which molecular clouds fragment into smaller clumps and eventually into dense cores – the cradles of stars – are still not well understood.
While gravitational collapse alone is insufficient, processes such as turbulence, magnetic fields, and stellar feedback likely drive colliding flows that might form filaments. When they contract, turbulence and density in their central clumps increase to levels high enough to form star-forming clusters at their centers, further leading to star-formation feedback.
With VLA observations of W33 Main, the largest and most massive molecular cloud in the W33 complex, we investigate the formation of these central clumps and associated feedback processes like in- and outflows. By analysing the molecular gas kinematics along filaments on multiple scales, we locate the formation site of the clumps relative to the filaments and examine the presence of mass accretion flows between filaments and clumps.