Related papers: Collisional debris as laboratories to study star f…
In this review, I present the case for how massive stars may form through stellar collisions. This mechanism requires very high stellar densities, up to 4 orders of magnitude higher than are observed in the cores of dense young clusters. In…
We review current understanding of star formation, outlining an overall theoretical framework and the observations that motivate it. A conception of star formation has emerged in which turbulence plays a dual role, both creating…
We have investigated how the incidence of star-forming galaxies varies with the environment using a volume-limited sample of nearby galaxy spectra extracted from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. The environment is characterized by the local…
Circumstellar disks are an essential ingredient of the formation of low-mass stars. It is unclear, however, whether the accretion-disk paradigm can also account for the formation of stars more massive than about 10 solar masses, in which…
The relations between star formation and properties of molecular clouds are studied based on a sample of star forming regions in the Galactic Plane. Sources were selected by having radio recombination lines to provide identification of…
We conduct an environmental analysis around 167 star-forming galaxies (SFGs) detected by the Star Formation Across Cosmic Time (SFACT) survey over the redshift range 0.129 $\leq$ z $\leq$ 0.500. We use three environmental estimators to…
(ABBREVIATED) Understanding the formation of stars in galaxies is central to much of modern astrophysics. In this review the relation between interstellar turbulence and star formation is discussed. Supersonic turbulence can provide support…
I review observational studies of the large-scale star formation process in nearby galaxies. A wealth of new multi-wavelength data provide an unprecedented view on the interplay of the interstellar medium and (young) stellar populations on…
We explore the connection between dust and star formation, in the context of environmental effects on galaxy evolution. In particular, we exploit the susceptibility of dust to external processes to assess the influence of dense environment…
Star formation is intimately linked to the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds. Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass via accretion from the surrounding cloud…
We have used a large sample of low-inclination spiral galaxies with radially-resolved optical and near-infrared photometry to investigate trends in star formation history with radius as a function of galaxy structural parameters. A maximum…
We analyse the effects of galaxy interactions on star formation in groups and clusters of galaxies with virial masses in the range $10^{13} - 10 ^{15} M_{\odot}$. We find a trend for galaxy-galaxy interactions to be less efficient in…
We study global star formation thresholds in the outer parts of galaxies by investigating the stability of disk galaxies embedded in dark halos. The disks are self-gravitating, contain metals and dust, and are exposed to UV radiation. We…
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…
Interacting galaxies are known to have higher global rates of star formation on average than normal galaxies, relative to their stellar masses. Using UV and IR photometry combined with new and published H-alpha images, we have compared the…
Star-formation in the outer Galaxy is thought to be different from the inner Galaxy, as it is subject to different environmental parameters such as metallicity, interstellar radiation field, or mass surface density that all change with…
We investigate giant molecular cloud (GMCs) collisions and their ability to induce gravitational instability and thus star formation. This mechanism may be a major driver of star formation activity in galactic disks. We carry out a series…
In a new simple model I reconcile two contradictory views on the factors that determine the rate at which molecular clouds form stars -- internal structure vs. external, environmental influences -- providing a unified picture for the…
Cloud collision have been proposed as a way to link the small-scale star formation process with the observed global relation between the surface star formation rate and gas surface density. We suggest that this model can be improved further…
The spatial range for feedback from star formation varies from molecular cloud disruption on parsec scales to supershells and disk blowout on kiloparsec scales. The relative amounts of energy and momentum given to these scales is important…