The dependence of star formation on initial conditions and molecular
  cloud structure
  We investigate the dependence of stellar properties on the initial kinematic
structure of the gas in star-forming molecular clouds. We compare the results
from two large-scale hydrodynamical simulations of star cluster formation that
resolve the fragmentation process down to the opacity limit, the first of which
was reported by Bate, Bonnell and Bromm. The initial conditions of the two
calculations are identical, but in the new simulation the power spectrum of the
velocity field imposed on the cloud initially and allowed to decay is biased in
favour of large-scale motions. Whereas the calculation of Bate et al. began
with a power spectrum P(k) ~ k^{-4} to match the Larson scaling relations for
the turbulent motions observed in molecular clouds, the new calculation begins
with a power spectrum P(k) ~ k^{-6}. Despite this change to the initial motions
in the cloud and the resulting density structure of the molecular cloud, the
resulting stellar properties resulting from the two calculations are
indistinguishable. This demonstrates that the results of such hydrodynamical
calculations of star cluster formation are relatively insensitive to the
initial conditions. It is also consistent with the fact that the statistical
properties of stars and brown dwarfs (e.g. the stellar initial mass function)
are observed to be relatively invariant within our Galaxy and do not appear to
depend on environment.
