Related papers: Star Formation in a Turbulent Framework: From Gian…
Measurements of the star formation efficiency (SFE) of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Milky Way generally show a large scatter, which could be intrinsic or observational. We use magnetohydrodynamic simulations of GMCs (including…
There is now abundant observational evidence that star formation is a highly dynamical process that connects filament hierarchies and supernova feedback from galaxy scale kpc filaments and superbubbles, to giant molecular clouds (GMCs) on…
Two competing models, gravitational instability-driven transport and stellar feedback, have been proposed to interpret the high velocity dispersions observed in high-redshift galaxies. We study the major mechanisms to drive the turbulence…
High-mass stars form in protoclusters, where gravo-magnetic processes shape collapsing clouds and clumps to be elongated preferentially perpendicular to magnetic (B) fields. Yet it remains unclear whether gravo-magnetic processes still…
The formation of molecular clouds out of HI gas is the first step toward star formation. Its metallicity dependence plays a key role to determine star formation through the cosmic history. Previous theoretical studies with detailed chemical…
Context. The seeds of the first supermassive black holes may have resulted from the direct collapse of hot primordial gas in $\gtrsim 10^4$ K haloes, forming a supermassive or quasistar as an intermediate stage. Aims. We explore the…
Stars form from the gravitational collapse of dense molecular cloud cores. In the protostellar phase, mass accretes from the core onto a protostar, likely through an accretion disk, and it is during this phase that the initial masses of…
We present an idealized, semi-empirical model for the evolution of gravitationally contracting molecular clouds (MCs) and their star formation rate (SFR) and efficiency (SFE). The model assumes that the instantaneous SFR is given by the…
We consider the dynamical evolution of an interstellar cloud that is initially in thermal equilibrium in the warm phase and is then subjected to a sudden increase in the pressure of its surroundings. We find that if the initial plasma beta…
Interstellar turbulence is driven over a wide range of scales by processes including spiral arm instabilities and supernovae, and it affects the rate and morphology of star formation, energy dissipation, and angular momentum transfer in…
Recently, we have shown that if the ISM is governed by super-sonic turbulent flows, the excursion-set formalism can be used to calculate the statistics of self-gravitating objects over a wide range of scales. On the largest self-gravitating…
Stars form in clusters from the gravitational collapse of giant molecular clouds, which is opposed by a variety of physical processes, including stellar feedback. The interplay between these processes determines the star formation rate of…
Recent studies of the nearest star-forming clouds of the Galaxy at submillimeter wavelengths with the Herschel Space Observatory have provided us with unprecedented images of the initial conditions and early phases of the star formation…
We present numerical simulations of the passage of clumpy gas through a galactic spiral shock and the subsequent formation of giant molecular clouds (GMCs). The spiral shock forms dense clouds while dissipating kinetic energy, producing…
We perform SPH simulations of the collapse and fragmentation of low-mass cores having different initial levels of turbulence (alpha_turb=0.05,0.10,0.25). We use a new treatment of the energy equation which captures the transport of cooling…
We investigate the dynamical evolution of star clusters during their formation, assuming that they are born from a turbulent starless clump of a given mass that is embedded within a parent self-gravitating molecular cloud characterized by a…
I review recent numerical and analytical work on the feedback from both low- and high-mass cluster stars into their gasoeus environment. The main conclusions are that i) outflow driving appears capable of maintaing the turbulence in…
We use simulations with realistic models for stellar feedback to study galaxy mergers. These high resolution (1 pc) simulations follow formation and destruction of individual GMCs and star clusters. The final starburst is dominated by in…
The formation of a star is a dynamic process fed by the gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud core. Theoretical models and observations suggest that the majority of this infalling material settles into a protoplanetary disk before…
A fundamental issue in star formation is understanding the precise mechanisms leading to the formation of prestellar cores, and their subsequent gravitationally unstable evolution. To address this question, we carefully construct a suite of…