Related papers: A hot compact dust disk around a massive young ste…
A relation between the mass accretion rate onto the central young star and the mass of the surrounding protoplanetary disk has long been theoretically predicted and observationally sought. For the first time, we have accurately and…
Recent interferometric surveys of nearby main-sequence stars show a faint but significant near-infrared excess in roughly two dozen systems, i.$\,$e. around $10\,\%$ to $30\,\%$ of stars surveyed. This excess is attributed to dust located…
Planets are a natural byproduct of the stellar formation process, resulting from local aggregations of material within the disks surrounding young stars. Whereas signatures of gas-giant planets at large orbital separations have been…
A star acquires much of its mass by accreting material from a disc. Accretion is probably not continuous but episodic. We have developed a method to include the effects of episodic accretion in simulations of star formation. Episodic…
Long-baseline interferometry at infrared wavelengths allows the innermost regions around young stars to be observed. These observations directly probe the location of the dust and gas in the disks. The characteristic sizes of these regions…
We analyse the phase-space structure of simulated thick discs that are the result of a significant merger between a disc galaxy and a satellite. Our main goal is to establish what would be the characteristic imprints of a merger origin for…
Gas disks of spiral galaxies can be described as clumpy accretion disks without a coupling of viscosity to the actual thermal state of the gas. The model description of a turbulent disk consisting of emerging and spreading clumps (Vollmer &…
The surroundings of massive protostars constitute an accretion disc which has numerically been shown to be subject to fragmentation and responsible for luminous accretion-driven outbursts. Moreover, it is suspected to produce close binary…
The structure of inner region of protoplanetary disks around young pre-main-sequence stars is still poorly understood. This part of the disk is shaped by various forces that influence dust and gas dynamics, and by dust sublimation, which…
A large fraction of brown dwarfs and low-mass H-burning stars may form by gravitational fragmentation of protostellar discs. We explore the conditions for disc fragmentation and we find that they are satisfied when a disc is large enough…
In recent years, it has been demonstrated that massive stars see their infant circumstellar medium shaped into a large, irradiated, gravitationally unstable accretion disc during their early formation phase. Such discs constitute the gas…
When stars form in small groups (N = 100 - 500 members), their circumstellar disks are exposed to little EUV radiation but a great deal of FUV radiation from massive stars in the group. This paper calculates mass loss rates for…
This chapter reviews progress in the field of massive star formation. It focuses on evidence for accretion and current models that invoke high accretion rates. In particular it is noted that high accretion rates will cause the massive young…
Young massive stars warm up the large amount of gas and dust which condenses in their vicinity, exciting a forest of lines from different molecular species. Their line brightness is a diagnostic tool of the gas physical conditions locally,…
We develop a model for the outer gravitationally unstable regions of accretion disks around massive black holes, for primeval or solar abundances. First we study star formation and evolution in a purely gaseous marginally unstable disk, and…
The origin of the population of very massive stars observed within $\sim 0.4$ pc of the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Centre is a mystery. Tidal forces from the black hole would likely inhibit {\it in situ} star formation whilst…
Contemporary theory holds that massive stars gather mass during their initial phases via accreting disk-like structures. However, conclusive evidence for disks has remained elusive for the most massive young objects. This is mainly due to…
Nearby dwarf irregular galaxies were searched for compact star clusters using data from the HST archives. Three of the galaxies were found to host both populous clusters (M_V<-9.5 at a fiducial age of 10 Myr) and super-star clusters…
Cosmic metallicity evolution possibly creates the diversity of star formation modes at different epochs. Gravitational fragmentation of circumstellar discs provides an important formation channel of multiple star systems, including close…
It is believed that young massive stars orbiting Sgr A* in two stellar discs on scales of 0.1-0.2 parsecs were formed either farther out in the Galaxy and then quickly migrated inward, or in situ in a massive self-gravitating disc.…