Related papers: On the Evolution of the Dense Core Mass Function
We investigate the dynamical effects of rapid gas expulsion from the core of a young stellar cluster. The aims of this study are to determine 1) whether a mass-segregated core survives the gas expulsion and 2) the probable location of any…
Star formation has often been studied by separating the low- and high-mass regimes with an approximate boundary at 8M_sun. While some of the outcomes of the star-formation process are different between the two regimes, it is less clear…
We present a simple model of binary star formation based on the assumption that rotating prestellar cores collapse to form rings and these rings then fragment into protostars. We assume that each ring spawns a small number (N <= 6) of…
Although the basic physics of star formation is classical, numerical simulations have yielded essential insights into how stars form. They show that star formation is a highly nonuniform runaway process characterized by the emergence of…
The current generation of millimeter interferometers have revealed a population of compact (r <~ 0.1 pc), massive (M ~ 100 Msun) gas cores that are the likely progenitors of massive stars. I review models for the evolution of these objects…
A sample of 1.3 mm continuum cores in the Dragon infrared dark cloud (also known as G28.37+0.07 or G28.34+0.06) is analyzed statistically. Based on their association with molecular outflows, the sample is divided into protostellar and…
Molecular clouds are the principle stellar nurseries of our universe, keeping them in the focus of both observational and theoretical studies. From observations, some of the key properties of molecular clouds are well known but many…
In the first part of this article, we review observations of the mass and luminosity functions of young and old star cluster systems. We also review some of the physical processes that may determine the characteristic mass of globular…
Close encounters between stars in star forming regions are important as they can perturb or destroy protoplanetary discs, young planetary systems, and stellar multiple systems. We simulate simple, viralised, equal-mass $N$-body star…
We investigate the formation of protostellar clusters during the collapse of dense molecular cloud cores with a focus on the evolution of potential and kinetic energy, the degree of substructure, and the early phase of mass segregation. Our…
Recent surveys of star forming regions have shown that most stars, and probably all massive stars, are born in dense stellar clusters. The mechanism by which a molecular cloud fragments to form several hundred to thousands of individual…
We investigate the properties and evolution of star particles in two simulations of isolated spiral galaxies, and two galaxies from cosmological simulations. Unlike previous numerical work, where typically each star particle represents one…
We summarize some of the results obtained from Herschel surveys of the nearby star forming regions and the Galactic plane. We show that in the nearby star forming regions the starless core spatial surface density distribution is very…
The evolution of massive stars is the basis of several astrophysical investigations, from predicting gravitational-wave event rates to studying star-formation and stellar populations in clusters. However, uncertainties in massive star…
Thermal evolution of neutron stars is known to depend on the properties of superdense matter in neutron star cores. We suggest a statistical analysis of isolated cooling middle-aged neutron stars and old transiently accreting…
Identifying the processes that determine strength, duration and variability of protostellar mass growth is a fundamental ingredient of any theory of star formation. I discuss protostellar mass accretion rates dM/dt from numerical models…
The distribution of galaxies on the mass-size plane as a function of redshift or environment is a powerful test for galaxy formation models. Here we use integral-field stellar kinematics to interpret the variation of the mass-size…
Mass functions of starless dense cores (CMFs) may arise from contraction and dispersal of core-forming filaments. In an illustrative model, a filament contracts radially by self-gravity, increasing the mass of its cores. During this…
We present analytic formulae that approximate the evolution of stars for a wide range of mass and metallicity. Stellar luminosity, radius and core mass are given as a function of age, M and Z, for all phases from the zero-age main-sequence…
We review the main results from recent numerical simulations of turbulent fragmentation and star formation. Specifically, we discuss the observed scaling relationships, the ``quiescent'' (subsonic) nature of many star-forming cores, their…