Related papers: How can star formation be sustained?
Gas accretion, hot ($\sim 10^6\,{\rm K}$) atmospheres, and a tilt between the rotation axes of the disc and the atmosphere are all common predictions of standard galaxy evolution theory for massive star-forming galaxies at low redshift.…
Studies of the halo gas in the Milky Way and in nearby spiral galaxies show the presence of gas complexes that cannot be reconciled with an internal (galactic fountain) origin and are direct evidence of gas accretion. Estimating gas…
It is argued that galaxies like ours sustain their star formation by transferring gas from an extensive corona to the star-forming disc. The transfer is effected by the galactic fountain -- cool clouds that are shot up from the plane to…
Star-forming galaxies are believed to replenish their atomic gas reservoir, which is consumed in star-formation, through accretion of gas from their circumgalactic mediums (CGMs). However, there are few observational constraints today on…
Evidence for gas accretion onto galaxies can be found throughout the universe. In this chapter, I summarize the direct and indirect signatures of this process and discuss the primary sources. The evidence for gas accretion includes the star…
We develop a chemical evolution model in order to study the star formation history of the Milky Way. Our model assumes that the Milky Way is formed from a closed box-like system in the inner regions, while the outer parts of the disc…
We use FIRE simulations to study disk formation in z~0, Milky Way-mass galaxies, and conclude that a key ingredient for the formation of thin stellar disks is the ability for accreting gas to develop an aligned angular momentum distribution…
This paper discusses how cosmic gas accretion controls star formation, and summarizes the physical properties expected for the cosmic gas accreted by galaxies. The paper also collects observational evidence for gas accretion sustaining star…
The wealth of data in the past decades, and especially in the past 15 years has transformed our picture of the gas around the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies. There is good evidence for extraplanar gas that is a few kpc in height and is…
Galaxy disks are characterised by star formation histories that vary systematically along the Hubble sequence. We study global star formation, incorporating supernova feedback, gas accretion and enriched outflows in disks modelled by a…
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…
Observed accretion rates onto the Milky-Way and other local spirals fall short of that required to sustain star formation for cosmological timescales. A potential avenue for this unseen accretion is an inflow in the volume-filling hot phase…
Cosmological numerical simulations of galaxy evolution show that accretion of metal-poor gas from the cosmic web drives the star formation in galaxy disks. Unfortunately, the observational support for this theoretical prediction is still…
Star formation occurs within dense regions of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), however, exactly how gas collects and evolves to form individual stars and what role dense cores play remains unclear. We use the Lagrangian cell information in…
The inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way harbours gas densities, pressures, velocity dispersions, an interstellar radiation field and a cosmic ray ionisation rate orders of magnitude higher than the disc; akin to the environment found…
The accretion of metal-poor gas sustains galactic star formation. In the Milky Way, this process is fueled by high-velocity clouds (HVCs), yet their fundamental properties have remained elusive in the absence of stellar tracers. Here we…
Cold-mode gas accretion onto galaxies is a direct prediction of LCDM simulations and provides galaxies with fuel that allows them to continue to form stars over the lifetime of the Universe. Given its dramatic influence on a galaxy's gas…
I review studies of the hot gaseous medium in and around nearby normal disk galaxies, including the Milky Way. This medium represents a reservoir of materials required for lasting star formation, a depository of galactic feedback (e.g.,…
Evidence for the accretion of cold gas in galaxies has been rapidly accumulating in the past years. HI observations of galaxies and their environment have brought to light new facts and phenomena which are evidence of ongoing or recent…
The metal-poor gas continuously accreting onto the discs of spiral galaxies is unlikely to arrive from the intergalactic medium (IGM) with exactly the same rotation velocity as the galaxy itself and even a small angular momentum mismatch…