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Recent galaxy observations show that star formation activity changes depending on galactic environments. In order to understand the diversity of galactic-scale star formation, it is crucial to understand the formation and evolution of giant…
To explore the potential role of gravity, turbulence and magnetic fields in high-mass star formation in molecular clouds, this study revisits the velocity dispersion--size ($\sigma$--$L$) and density--size ($\rho$--$L$) scalings and the…
We use the Arepo moving mesh code to simulate the evolution of molecular clouds exposed to a harsh environment similar to that found in the galactic center (GC), in an effort to understand why the star formation efficiency (SFE) of clouds…
Recent high-angular-resolution (up to 0.7") dust polarization observations toward star forming regions are summarized. With the Sub-Millimeter Array, the emission from the dense structures is traced and resolved. The detected magnetic field…
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…
We present measurements of the star formation efficiency (SFE) in 3D numerical simulations of driven turbulence in supercritical, ideal-MHD, and non-magnetic regimes, characterized by their mean normalized mass-to-flux ratio $\mu$, all with…
Filaments are an ubiquitous feature of molecular clouds, and appear to play a critical role in assembling the material to form stars. The dominant filaments are observed to have a rather narrow range of widths around $\sim 0.1$ pc, and to…
Observations indicate that molecular clouds are strongly magnetized, and that magnetic fields influence the formation of stars. A key observation supporting the conclusion that molecular clouds are significantly magnetized is that the…
Magnetic fields play an important role in star formation by regulating the removal of angular momentum from collapsing molecular cloud cores. Hall diffusion is known to be important to the magnetic field behaviour at many of the…
Clouds containing molecular dark matter in quantities relevant for star formation may exist in minihaloes of the type of cold dark matter included in many cosmological simulations or in the regions of some galaxies extending far beyond…
The Zeeman effect and dust grain alignment are two major methods for probing magnetic fields (B-fields) in molecular clouds, largely motivated by the study of star formation, as the B-field may regulate gravitational contraction and channel…
The formation of stars and planetary systems is a complex phenomenon, which relies on the interplay of multiple physical processes. Nonetheless, it represents a crucial stage for our understanding of the Universe, and in particular of the…
Magnetic fields of molecular clouds in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) have been relatively underobserved at sub-parsec resolution. Here we report JCMT/POL2 observations of polarized dust emission in the CMZ, which reveal magnetic field…
The dense molecular cloud cores that form stars, like other self-gravitating objects, undergo bulk oscillations. Just at the point of gravitational instability, their fundamental oscillation mode has zero frequency. We study, using…
I describe the scenario of molecular cloud (MC) evolution that has emerged over the past decade or so. MCs can start out as cold atomic clouds formed by compressive motions in the warm neutral medium (WNM) of galaxies. Such motions can be…
Radiation feedback from young star clusters embedded in giant molecular clouds (GMCs) is believed to be important to the control of star formation. For the most massive and dense clouds, including those in which super star clusters (SSCs)…
Stars form through the gravitational collapse of molecular cloud cores. Before collapsing, the cores are supported by thermal pressure and turbulent motions. A question of critical importance for the understanding of star formation is how…
We discuss the effects of the magnetic field observed in molecular clouds on the process of star formation, concentrating on the phase of gravitational collapse of low-mass dense cores, cradles of sunlike stars. We summarize recent analytic…
We study the structural evolution of turbulent molecular clouds under the influence of ionizing radiation emitted from a nearby massive star by performing a high resolution parameter study with the iVINE code. The temperature is taken to be…
Stars form in cold clouds of predominantly molecular (H2) gas. We are just beginning to understand how the formation, properties, and destruction of these clouds varies across the universe. In this chapter, we describe how the thermal line…