Related papers: Substellar-Mass Condensations in Prestellar Cores
In star forming regions, we can observe different evolutionary stages of various objects and phenomena such as molecular clouds, protostellar jets and outflows, circumstellar disks, and protostars. However, it is difficult to directly…
Stars form predominantly in clusters inside dense clumps of turbulent, magnetized molecular clouds. The typical size and mass of the cluster-forming clumps are \sim 1 pc and \sim 10^2 - 10^3 M_\odot, respectively. Here, we discuss some…
If star formation proceeds by thermal fragmentation and the subsequent gravitational collapse of the individual fragments, how is it possible to form fragments massive enough for O and B stars in a typical star-forming molecular cloud where…
Only a handful of massive starless core candidates have been discovered so far, but none of them have been fully confirmed. Within the MM1 clump in the filamentary infrared dark cloud G34.43+0.24 that was covered by the ALMA-ATOMS survey at…
We present a study of outflow, infall, and rotation in a ~10^5 Lsun (solar luminosity) star-forming region, IRAS 18360-0537, with Submillimeter Array (SMA) and IRAM 30m observations. The 1.3 mm continuum map shows a 0.5 pc dust ridge, of…
Most young stars in nearby molecular clouds have estimated ages of 1-2 Myr, suggesting that star formation is rapid. However, small numbers of stars in these regions with inferred ages of >= 5-10 Myr have been cited to argue that star…
The isothermal gravitational collapse and fragmentation of a molecular cloud region and the subsequent formation of a protostellar cluster is investigated numerically. The clump mass spectrum which forms during the fragmentation phase can…
As natural consequences of the accretion process, outflows are one of the few (indirect) tracers of accretion. We used CO(2-1) PdBI observations towards 6 MDCs in Cygnus-X, containing 9 high-mass cores, to investigate what the accretion…
The key question about early protostellar evolution is how matter is accreted from the large-scale molecular cloud, through the circumstellar disk onto the central star. A sample of 20 Class 0 and I protostars has been observed in continuum…
We develop a new method to constrain the star formation histories, dust attenuation and stellar masses of galaxies. It is based on two stellar absorption line indices, the 4000 Angstrom break strength and the Balmer absorption line index…
Stars like our Sun form in self-gravitating dense and cold structures within interstellar clouds, called pre-stellar cores. Although much is known about the physical structure of dense clouds just before and soon after the switch-on of a…
We present a spatially resolved study of stellar populations in 6 galaxies with stellar masses $M_*\sim10^{10}M_\odot$ at $z\sim3.7$ using 14-filter JWST/NIRCam imaging from the JADES and JEMS surveys. The 6 galaxies are visually selected…
The isothermal dynamical evolution of a clumpy and turbulent molecular cloud region and its fragmentation into a protostellar cluster is investigated numerically. The effect of different initial density and velocity distributions, generated…
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 present an unbiased census of starless cores in Perseus, Serpens, and Ophiuchus, assembled by comparing large-scale Bolocam 1.1 mm continuum emission maps with Spitzer c2d surveys. We use the c2d catalogs to separate 108 starless from 92…
We investigate the formation of protostellar clusters during the collapse of dense molecular cloud cores with a focus on the evolution of potential and kinetic energy, the degree of substructure, and the early phase of mass segregation. Our…
We simulate the formation and collapse of prestellar cores at few-AU resolution in a set of radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) using the grid-based code RAMSES-RT. We adopt, for the first time to our…
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…
Compact substructure is expected to arise in a starless core as mass becomes concentrated in the central region likely to form a protostar. Additionally, multiple peaks may form if fragmentation occurs. We present ALMA Cycle 2 observations…
Astronomers have yet to establish whether high-mass protostars form from high-mass prestellar cores, similar to their lower-mass counterparts, or from lower-mass fragments at the heart of a pre-protostellar cluster undergoing large-scale…