HII regions and triggered star formation in the turbulent ISM

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We propose a detailed investigation of the impact of ionizing radiation from massive stars on star-forming, turbulent molecular clouds, i.e. how, and under what circumstances, massive stars may trigger, or accelerate and then terminate star formation. Self-sustained, triggered star formation in a turbulent ISM of different statistical properties may lead to the formation of one or more massive stars triggered by an initial HII region, these stars will again cause new HII regions and may trigger subsequent star formation. For the first time we will thoroughly investigate the formation of multiple generations of HII regions in high-resolution, three-dimensional, gravo-turbulent simulations of molecular clouds with different initial structure. The simulations will be compared in detail to available and new observations with high spatial and spectral resolution with Spitzer, Herschel, and ALMA. For this purpose we will employ different radiative transfer methods to produce continuum and line emission maps as well as spectral energy distributions. The simulations as well as the maps will be made available to the astrophysical community via the Astronet database for star formation.