Related papers: The dependence of star formation on initial condit…
We study the formation and early evolution of star clusters that have a wide range of masses and background cloud mass surface densities, $\Sigma_{\rm cloud}$, which help set the initial sizes, densities, and velocity dispersions of the…
Recent observations, as well as theoretical studies, have suggested that stellar cluster formation may depend on local and global environmental properties. In particular, the fraction of stars that form within long-lived bound clusters…
Cloud environment is thought to play a critical role in determining the mechanism of formation of massive stars. In this contribution we review the physical characteristics of the environment around recently formed massive stars. Particular…
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…
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…
We investigate the possibility of very early formation of primordial star clusters from high-\sigma perturbations in cold dark matter dominated structure formation scenarios. For this we have developed a powerful 2-level hierarchical…
The kinematics of molecular gas are crucial for setting the stage for star formation. One key question related to the kinematic properties of gas is how they depend on the spatial scale. We aim to describe the CO spectra, velocity…
I review the status of massive star formation theories: accretion from collapsing, massive, turbulent cores; competitive accretion; and stellar collisions. I conclude the observational and theoretical evidence favors the first of these…
We present results from the largest numerical simulation of star formation to resolve the fragmentation process down to the opacity limit. The simulation follows the collapse and fragmentation of a large-scale turbulent molecular cloud to…
The formation of stars is inextricably linked to the structure of their parental molecular clouds. Here we take a number of nearby giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and analyse their column density and mass distributions. This investigation is…
Magnetic stresses collimate protostellar winds into a common distribution of force with angle. Sweeping into the ambient medium, such winds drive bipolar molecular outflows whose properties are insensitive to the distribution of ambient gas…
Star formation within the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) may be intimately linked to the orbital dynamics of the gas. Recent models suggest that star formation within the dust ridge molecular clouds (from G0.253+0.016 to Sgr B2) follows an…
We report the stellar mass functions obtained from 20 radiation hydrodynamical simulations of star cluster formation in 500 M$_\odot$ molecular clouds with metallicities of 3, 1, 1/10 and 1/100 of the solar value, with the clouds subjected…
We have performed a large set of high-resolution cosmological simulations using smoothed particle hydrodynamics to study the formation of the first luminous objects in the LCDM cosmology. We follow the collapse of primordial gas clouds 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…
We study numerically the effect of varying the equation of state (EOS) on the formation of stellar clusters in turbulent molecular clouds. Our results show that the EOS plays an important role in the fragmentation of the clouds, and the…
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…
We investigate how the properties of escaping stars are related to the initial conditions of their birth clusters. We find that the number of escaping stars, their spatial distribution, and their kinematics show a dependence on the initial…
Most of massive stars form in binary or higher-order systems in clumpy, sub-structured clusters. In the very first phases of their life, these stars are expected to interact with the surrounding environment, before being released to the…
Using studies of nearby star formation with Spitzer, I will argue that star formation is restricted to dense cores within molecular clouds. The nature of these dense cores and their connection to star formation will be discussed. Their…