Related papers: A Minimum Column Density of 1 g cm^-2 for Massive …
Young galaxies are clumpy, gas-rich, and highly turbulent. Star formation appears to occur by gravitational instabilities in galactic disks. The high dispersion makes the clumps massive and the disks thick. The star formation rate should be…
The aim of this study is to characterize the distribution and basic properties of the natal gas associated with high-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) in isolated environments in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). High-mass stars usually…
The dense interiors of massive galaxies are among the most intriguing environments in the Universe. In this paper we ask when these dense cores were formed and determine how galaxies gradually assembled around them. We select galaxies that…
In this paper, the first in a series on galaxy formation before reionization, we focus on understanding what determines the size and morphology of stellar objects in the first low mass galaxies, using parsec- scale cosmological simulations…
The onset of massive star formation is not well understood because of observational and theoretical difficulties. To find the dense and cold clumps where massive star formation can take place, we compiled a sample of high infrared…
Mergers of gas-rich galaxies lead to gravitationally driven increases in gas pressure that can trigger intense bursts of star and cluster formation. Although star formation itself is clustered, most newborn stellar aggregates are unbound…
Understanding star formation is problematic as it originates in the large scale dynamics of a galaxy but occurs on the small scale of an individual star forming event. This paper presents the first numerical simulations to resolve the star…
Studies of evolved massive stars indicate that they form in a clustered mode. During the earliest evolutionary stages, these regions are embedded within their natal cores. Here, we show high-spatial-resolution interferometric dust continuum…
This paper argues that star forming environments should be classified into finer divisions than the traditional isolated and clustered modes. Using the observed set of galactic open clusters and theoretical considerations regarding cluster…
We investigate the formation of both clustered and distributed populations of young stars in a single molecular cloud. We present a numerical simulation of a 10,000 solar mass elongated, turbulent, molecular cloud and the formation of over…
The initial conditions are critical for understanding high-mass star formation, but are not well observed. Built on our previous characterization of a Galaxy-wide sample of 463 candidate high-mass starless clumps (HMSCs), here we…
All measurements of cosmic star formation must assume an initial distribution of stellar masses -- the stellar initial mass function -- in order to extrapolate from the star-formation rate measured for typically rare, massive stars (> 8…
How do stars manage to form within low-density, HI-dominated gas? Such environments provide a laboratory for studying star formation with physical conditions distinct from starbursts and the metal-rich disks of spiral galaxies where most…
Within collapsing protogalaxies, thermal instability leads to the formation of a population of cool fragments which are confined by the pressure of a residual hot background medium. The critical mass required for the cold clouds to become…
Recent observations have revealed massive galactic molecular outflows that may have physical conditions (high gas densities) required to form stars. Indeed, several recent models predict that such massive galactic outflows may ignite star…
The extraordinary starbursts found in ultraluminous IR galaxies occur in molecular gas concentrated in compact very massive "clouds" which we call "Extreme Starbursts". They have one thousand times the mass but are only a few times larger…
We present the results of SPH simulations in which two clouds, each having mass $M_{_{\rm{o}}}\!=\!500\,{\rm M}_{_\odot}$ and radius $R_{_{\rm{o}}}\!=\!2\,{\rm pc}$, collide head-on at relative velocities of $\Delta v_{_{\rm{o}}}…
We study the relationship between the gas column density (derived from GMRT 21 cm data) and the star formation rate surface density (derived from publicly available GALEX data) for a sample of 23 extremely faint dwarf irregular galaxies…
The physical conditions in molecular clouds control the nature and rate of star formation, with consequences for planet formation and galaxy evolution. The focus of this review is on the conditions that characterize regions of star…
In this contribution we review our recent numerical work discussing the essential role of the local cluster environment in assembling massive stars. First we show that massive stars are formed from low mass pre-stellar cores and become…