Related papers: Massive Star Formation: The Power of Interferometr…
As Pr. Th. Henning said at the conference, cold precursors of high-mass stars are now "hot topics". We here propose some observational criteria to identify massive infrared-quiet dense cores which can host the high-mass analogs of Class 0…
The observational consequences of the merger scenario for massive star formation are explored and contrasted with the gradual accumulation of mass by accretion. Protostellar mergers may produce high luminosity infrared flares lasting years…
The chemical abundances in the atmosphere of a star provide unique information about the gas from which that star formed, and, modulo processes that are not important for the vast majority of stars, such as mass transfer in close binary…
Analyzing global starburst properties in various kinds of starburst and post-starburst galaxies and relating them to the properties of the star cluster populations they form, I explore the conditions for the formation of massive, compact,…
Massive stars play an important role in the Universe. Unlike low-mass stars, the formation of these objects located at great distances is still unclear. It is expected to be governed by some combination of self-gravity, turbulence, and…
Starburst galaxies are powered by massive stars. These stars dominate the heating and enrichment with heavy elements of the interstellar medium, gas out of which new stars form. Thus, high-mass stars, and in consequence starburst galaxies,…
Understanding the collapse of clouds and the formation of protoplanetary disks is essential to understanding the formation of stars and planets. Infall and accretion, the mass-aggregation processes that occur at envelope and disk scales,…
Stars collect most of their mass during the protostellar stage, yet the accretion luminosity and stellar parameters, which are needed to compute the mass accretion rate, are poorly constrained for the youngest sources. The aim of this work…
Observations of the interstellar medium are key to deciphering the physical processes regulating star formation in galaxies. However, observational uncertainties and detection limits can bias the interpretation unless carefully modeled.…
Understanding the formation of the first stars is one of the frontier topics in modern astrophysics and cosmology. Their emergence signaled the end of the cosmic dark ages, a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, leading to a…
The interstellar medium (ISM) is a very complex medium which contains the matter needed to form stars and planets. The ISM is in permanent interaction with radiation, turbulence, magnetic and gravitational fields, and accelerated particles.…
In young star clusters, the density can be high enough and the velocity dispersion low enough for stars to collide and merge with a significant probability. This has been suggested as a possible way to build up the high-mass portion of the…
The processes leading to the birth of low-mass stars such as our Sun have been well studied, but the formation of high-mass (> 8 x Sun's mass) stars has heretofore remained poorly understood. Recent observational studies suggest that…
The formation of low-mass stars in molecular clouds involves accretion disks and jets, which are of broad astrophysical interest. Accreting stars represent the closest examples of these phenomena. Star and planet formation are also…
The abundances of gas and dust (solids and complex molecules) in the interstellar medium (ISM) as well as their composition and structures impact practically all of astrophysics. Fundamental processes from star formation to stellar winds to…
Improving our understanding of the initial conditions and earliest stages of protostellar collapse is crucial to gain insight into the origin of stellar masses, multiple systems, and protoplanetary disks. Observationally, there are two…
Mass accretion onto (proto-)stars at high accretion rates > 10^-4 M_sun/yr is expected in massive star formation. We study the evolution of massive protostars at such high rates by numerically solving the stellar structure equations. In…
In spite of significant recent and ongoing research efforts, most of the early evolution and long-term fate of young massive star clusters remain clouded in uncertainties. Here, I discuss our understanding of the initial conditions of star…
The current state-of-the-art of multi-wavelength diagnostic tools (evolutionary synthesis, photoionisation models) for massive star forming regions (HII regions, starbursts, etc.) and some of their input physics (especially model…
The formation and evolution of a circumstellar disk in magnetized cloud cores is investigated from prestellar core stage until sim 10^4 yr after protostar formation. In the circumstellar disk, fragmentation first occurs due to gravitational…