Related papers: Cosmic-Ray Heating of Molecular Gas in the Nuclear…
Cosmic-ray and X-ray heating are derived from the electron energy loss calculations of Dalgarno, Yan and Liu for hydrogen-helium gas mixtures. These authors treated the heating from elastic scattering and collisional de-excitation of…
The Galactic center is the closest region in which we can study star formation under extreme physical conditions like those in high-redshift galaxies. We measure the temperature of the dense gas in the central molecular zone (CMZ) and…
The history of star formation in the strong gravitational potential of the Galactic center has been of much interest, recently. We propose that the sub-parsec-scale disk of massive stars orbiting the massive black hole at the Galactic…
On both observational and theoretical grounds, the disk of our Galaxy should be accreting cool gas with temperature ~<10^5 K via the halo at a rate ~1 M_sun/yr. At least some of this accretion is mediated by high velocity clouds (HVCs),…
We present infrared and millimeter observations of molecular gas, dust and ionized gas towards a sample of clouds distributed along the 500 central pc of the Galaxy. The clouds were selected to investigate the physical state, in particular…
The Galactic centre - as the closest galactic nucleus - holds both intrinsic interest and possibly represents a useful analogue to star-burst nuclei which we can observe with orders of magnitude finer detail than these external systems. The…
Cosmic rays are the only agent capable of ionizing the interior of dense molecular clouds and, thus, they are believed to play an essential role in determining the physical and chemical evolution of star-forming regions. In this work, we…
Star formation depends on the available gaseous "fuel" as well as galactic environment, with higher specific star formation rates where gas is predominantly molecular and where stellar (and dark matter) densities are higher. The partition…
Cosmic rays are an important source of heating in the interstellar medium, in particular in dense molecular cloud cores shielded from the external ultraviolet radiation field. The limits placed on the cosmic-ray ionization rate from…
OH(1720 MHz) and methanol masers are now recognized to be excellent probes of the interactions of supernova remnants with molecular clouds and tracers of massive star formation, respectively. To better understand the nature of star…
One of the most outstanding problems in the gravitational collapse scenario of early structure formation is the cooling of primordial gas to allow for small mass objects to form. As the neutral primordial gas is a poor radiator at…
I review studies of the hot gaseous medium in and around nearby normal disk galaxies, including the Milky Way. This medium represents a reservoir of materials required for lasting star formation, a depository of galactic feedback (e.g.,…
We present an analysis of 55 central galaxies in clusters and groups with molecular gas masses and star formation rates lying between $10^{8}-10^{11}\ M_{\odot}$ and $0.5-270$ $M_{\odot}\ yr^{-1}$, respectively. We have used Chandra…
Low-energy cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal and dynamical evolution. The purpose of this work is to explore the possibility that a low-energy component of…
A model is presented which calculates the gas temperature and chemistry in the surface layers of flaring circumstellar disks using a code developed for photon-dominated regions. Special attention is given to the influence of dust settling.…
Molecular clouds interacting with supernova remnants may be subject to a greatly enhanced irradiation by cosmic rays produced at the shocked interface between the ejecta and the molecular gas. Over the past decade, broad-band observations…
The discovery of hundreds of young, bright stars within a parsec from the massive black hole at the center of the Galaxy presents a challenge to star formation theories. The requisite Roche densities for the gravitational collapse of gas…
Recent observations show that the cooling flows in the central regions of galaxy clusters are highly suppressed. Observed AGN-induced cavities/bubbles are a leading candidate for suppressing cooling, usually via some form of mechanical…
Two lines of evidence indicate that active galaxies, principally radio galaxies, have heated the diffuse hot gas in clusters. The first is the general need for additional heating to explain the steepness of the X-ray luminosity--temperature…
The conversion of gas into stars is a fundamental process in astrophysics and cosmology. Stars are known to form from the gravitational collapse of dense clumps in interstellar molecular clouds, and it has been proposed that the resulting…