Related papers: Pathways through interstellar matter: - From the c…
Lyman-alpha is now widely used to investigate the galaxy formation and evolution in the high redshift universe. However, without a rigorous understanding of the processes which regulate the Lya escape fraction, physical interpretations of…
The fate of metals after they are released in starburst episodes is still unclear. What phases of the interstellar medium are involved, in which timescales? Evidence has grown over the past few years that the neutral phase of blue compact…
We analyze high-resolution ultraviolet spectra of three nearby exoplanet host stars (HD 192310, HD 9826, and HD 206860) to study interstellar properties along their lines of sight and to search for the presence of astrospheric absorption.…
The determination of chemical abundances in star-forming galaxies and the study of their evolution on cosmological timescales are powerful tools for understanding galaxy formation and evolution. This contribution presents the latest results…
An overview is given of the chemical processes that occur in primordial systems under the influence of radiation, metal abundances and dust surface reactions. It is found that radiative feedback effects differ for UV and X-ray photons at…
In this paper we address the question whether star formation is driven by local processes or the large scale environment. To do so, we investigate star formation in collisional debris where the gravitational potential well and velocity…
Outflows of pre-main-sequence stars drive shocks into molecular material within 0.01 - 1 pc of the young stars. The shock-heated gas emits infrared, millimeter and submillimeter lines of many species including. Dust grains are important…
We present a new model to compute the effects of dust on the integrated spectral properties of galaxies, based on an idealized prescription of the main features of the interstellar medium (ISM). The model includes the ionization of HII…
Since molecules are ubiquitous in space, the study of the 'Molecular Universe' could unfold the mystery of the existing Interstellar medium. Star formation is linked to the chemical evolution processes. Thus, an analysis of the formation of…
Unless properly corrected for, the existence of intergalactic dust will introduce a redshift dependent magnitude offset to standard candle sources. This would lead to overestimated luminosity distances compared to a dust-free universe and…
A field with particularly exciting results over the past few years is the study of the interaction of cosmic rays with interstellar matter. For star formation to take place, gas and dust need to be sufficiently cold for gravity to overcome…
Dust is essential to the evolution of galaxies and drives the formation of planetary systems. The challenge of inferring the origin of different presolar dust grains from meteoritic samples motivates forward modelling to understand the…
Knowledge of the molecular component of the ISM is fundamental to understand star formation. The H2 component appears to dominate the gas mass in the inner parts of galaxies, while the HI component dominates in the outer parts. Observation…
I review selected current observations of distant galaxies and our interpretation of the fragile (and occasionally contradictory) data. Galaxies at the ``contemporary limit'' of technology and redshift (z~6) are difficult to locate in the…
Our current understanding of interstellar dust is summarized at an introductory level. Submicron-sized interstellar dust grains absorb and scatter light, and reradiate the absorbed energy in the infrared. The grain population spans a range…
Maser emission plays an important role as a tool in star formation studies. It is widely used for deriving kinematics, as well as the physical conditions of different structures, hidden in the dense environment very close to the young…
Information about the make-up of the galaxy arrives in the Solar system in many forms: photons of different energies, classically collected by ground- and space-based telescopes, neutral and charged atomic particles, and solid macroscopic…
Recent observations with the IRAM instruments have allowed to explore the star formation efficiency in galaxies as a function of redshift, in detecting and mapping their molecular gas. Some galaxies stand on what is called the "main…
We present a semi-empirical model for the infrared emission of dust around star-forming sites in galaxies. Our approach combines a simple model of radiative transfer in dust clouds with a state-of-the-art model of the microscopic optical…
We present a set of coupled equations that relate the stellar, gaseous, chemical, and radiation constituents of the universe averaged over the whole galaxy population. Using as input the available data from quasar absorption-line surveys,…