Related papers: On a minimum Column Density for Massive Star Forma…
Massive galaxies in the early Universe have been shown to be forming stars at surprisingly high rates. Prominent examples are dust-obscured galaxies which are luminous when observed at sub-millimeter (sub-mm) wavelengths and which may be…
Determination of the star formation rate can be done using mid-IR photometry or Balmer line luminosity after a proper correction for extinction effects. Both methods show convergent results while those based on UV or on [OII]3727…
Constraining the physical and chemical evolution of molecular clouds is essential to our understanding of star formation. These investigations often necessitate knowledge of some local representative number density of the gas along the line…
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…
In young star clusters, the density can be high enough and the velocity dispersion low enough for stars to collide and merge with a significant probability. This has been suggested as a possible way to build up the high-mass portion of the…
We present a model for the formation of massive ($M > 10 M_\odot$) stars through accretion-induced collisions in the cores of embedded dense stellar clusters. This model circumvents the problem of accreting onto a star whose luminosity is…
Volume density is a key physical quantity controlling the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) and star formation, but it cannot be accessed directly by observations of molecular clouds. We aim at estimating the volume density…
Star formation in molecular clouds is intimately linked to their internal mass distribution. We present an unprecedentedly detailed analysis of the column density structure of a high-mass, filamentary molecular cloud, namely IRDC…
By means of grid-based, 3D hydrodynamical simulations we study the formation of second generation (SG) stars in a young globular cluster (GC) of mass 10^7 Msun, the possible progenitor of an old GC with a present mass ~(1-5) * 10^6 Msun.…
A review on current observations of high-mass star formation is given, with a little bit of theoretical background. Particular emphasis is given to the, in my opinion, most important observations to put strong constraints on models of…
Newborn stars form within the localized, high density regions of molecular clouds. The sequence and rate at which stars form in dense clumps and the dependence on local and global environments are key factors in developing descriptions of…
The physical mechanism that allows massive stars to form is a major unsolved problem in astrophysics. Stars with masses $\gtsim 20$ $\msun$ reach the main sequence while still embedded in their natal clouds, and the immense radiation output…
We developed a three-dimensional 2-level hierarchical cosmological code with a realistic and robust treatment of multi-species non-equilibrium ionization and radiative cooling processes, and use it to investigate primordial star forming…
The first stars in the Universe are predicted to have been much more massive than the Sun. Gravitational condensation accompanied by cooling of the primordial gas due to molecular hydrogen, yields a minimum fragmentation scale of a few…
Gas in galactic disks is collected by gravitational instabilities into giant atomic-molecular complexes, but only the inner, molecular parts of these structures are able to collapse to form stars. Determining what controls the ratio of…
We present a model for the formation of high-mass close binary systems in the context of forming massive stars through gas accretion in the centres of stellar clusters. A low-mass wide binary evolves under mass accretion towards a high-mass…
This article synthesizes observational data from an extensive program aimed toward a comprehensive understanding of star formation in a low-mass star-forming molecular cloud. New observations and published data spanning from the centimeter…
On galactic scales, the surface density of star formation appears to be well correlated with the surface density of molecular gas. This has lead many authors to suggest that there exists a causal relationship between the chemical state of…
The paper deals with the conditions required to form at least two stellar generations in globular clusters under the constraints generated by feedback from massive stars as well as radiative cooling and the metallicity of the primordial…
The large columns of dusty gas enshrouding and fuelling star-formation in young, massive stellar clusters may render such systems optically thick to radiation well into the infrared. This raises the prospect that both "direct" radiation…