Related papers: Star formation in galaxy interactions and mergers
Galaxy interactions are known to trigger starbursts. Young massive star clusters formed in interacting galaxies and mergers may become young globular clusters. The ages of these clusters can provide clues about the timing of…
The interstellar medium of galaxies is composed of multiple phases, including molecular, atomic, and ionized gas, as well as dust. Stars are formed within this medium from cold molecular gas clouds, which collapse due to their gravitational…
The rate of star formation varies between galaxy types and evolves with redshift. Most stars in the universe have formed in episodes of an exceptionally high star-forming activity, commonly called a starburst. We here summarize basic…
Together with interstellar turbulence, gravitation is one key player in star formation. It acts both at galactic scales in the assembly of gas into dense clouds, and inside those structures for their collapse and the formation of…
Massive stars have a profound influence on the Universe, but their formation remains poorly understood. We review the current status of observational and theoretical research in this field, describing the various stages of an evolutionary…
Galaxy evolution depends strongly on the environment. Dynamical interactions and subsequent evolution make galaxies more concentrated, with higher surface densities, and also trigger star-formation, which consumes the available cold gas.…
I review the properties of starburst galaxies in the nearby and distant universe to decipher their evolution as a distinct extragalactic class. The physical processes and environments of massive star-formation appear to be similar out to z…
I present recent observations and analyses of star cluster formation in a wide variety of environments -- from young star clusters and super star clusters in normal actively star-forming spirals and irregulars to starbursting dwarfs and…
As the formation of cosmic structure continues to proceed, we observe one of the latest stages of this process in mergers of clusters of galaxies with other clusters, groups, and galaxies. The X-ray emitting hot plasma of these systems can…
In the present-day universe, it appears that most, and perhaps all, massive stars are born in star clusters. It also appears that all star clusters contain stars drawn from an approximately universal initial mass function, so that almost…
Gas processes affecting star formation are reviewed with an emphasis on gravitational and magnetic instabilities as a source of turbulence. Gravitational instabilities are pervasive in a multi-phase medium, even for sub-threshold column…
Starbursts are episodes of intense star-formation that occur in the central regions of galaxies, and dominate the integrated emission from the galaxy. They are a significant component of the present- day universe, being the site of $\sim$…
We use cosmological SPH simulations to study the effects of mergers in the star formation history of galactic objects in hierarchical clustering scenarios. We find that during some merger events, gaseous discs can experience two starbursts:…
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…
We investigated the evolution of interacting disk galaxies using high-resolution $N$-body/SPH simulations, taking into account the multiphase nature of the interstellar medium (ISM). In our high-resolution simulations, a large-scale…
In this chapter I review theoretical models for the formation of very massive stars. After a brief overview of some relevant observations, I spend the bulk of the chapter describing two possible routes to the formation of very massive…
Mergers of massive gas-rich galaxies trigger violent starbursts that - over timescales of $> 100$ Myr and regions $> 10$ kpc - form massive and compact star clusters comparable in mass and radii to Galactic globular clusters. The star…
Theories of how galaxies, the fundamental constituents of large-scale structure, form and evolve have undergone a dramatic paradigm shift in the last few decades. Earlier views were of rapid, early collapse and formation of basic…
Star formation by gravitational instabilities, sequential triggering, and turbulence triggering are briefly reviewed in order to compare the various mechanisms that are observed in main galaxy disks with those in the inner kiloparsec…
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…