Related papers: Theoretical considerations for star formation at l…
We have investigated how the incidence of star-forming galaxies varies with the environment using a volume-limited sample of nearby galaxy spectra extracted from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. The environment is characterized by the local…
Properties of normal galactic star formation, including the density dependence, threshold density, turbulent scaling relations, and clustering properties, are applied to the formation of galactic bulges. One important difference is that the…
We report the stellar mass functions obtained from 20 radiation hydrodynamical simulations of star cluster formation in 500 M$_\odot$ molecular clouds with metallicities of 3, 1, 1/10 and 1/100 of the solar value, with the clouds subjected…
The empirical laws of star formation suggest that galactic-scale gravity is involved, but they do not identify the actual triggering mechanisms for clusters in the final stages. Many other triggering processes satisfy the empirical laws…
In these lectures I review observations of star-forming molecular clouds in our Galaxy and nearby galaxies to develop a physical intuition for understanding star formation in the local and high-redshift Universe. A lot of this material is…
We propose that star formation is delayed relative to the inflow rate in rapidly-accreting galaxies at very high redshift (z > 2) because of the energy conveyed by the accreting gas. Accreting gas streams provide fuel for star formation,…
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 and boundary conditions of the star formation…
Star formation occurs in hierarchical patterns in both space and time. Galaxies form large regions on the scale of the interstellar Jeans length and these large regions apparently fragment into giant molecular clouds and cloud cores in a…
Recent work has shown that the star formation-density relation -- in which galaxies with low star formation rates are preferentially found in dense environments -- is still in place at z~1, but the situation becomes less clear at higher…
Galactic disk formation requires knowledge about the initial conditions under which disk galaxies form, the boundary conditions that affect their secular evolution and the micro-physical processes that drive the multi-phase interstellar…
In this chapter we review recent advances in understanding the roles that magnetic fields play throughout the star formation process, gained through observations and simulations of molecular clouds, the dense, star-forming phase of the…
We demonstrate that the high pressure of the hot intracluster medium (ICM) can trigger the collapse of molecular clouds in a spiral galaxy, leading to a burst of star formation in the clouds. Our hydrodynamical simulations show that the…
Molecular clouds, the birthplaces of stars in galaxies, form dynamically from the diffuse atomic gas of the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is also threaded by magnetic fields which have a large impact on its dynamics. In particular,…
We use high-resolution ($\simeq$ 35pc) hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation to investigate the relation between gas accretion and star formation in galaxies hosted by dark matter haloes of mass $10^{12}$ $\mathrm{M_\odot}$ at $z =…
The analysis of disk formation is based on the White & Rees (1978) picture, in which disk galaxies form by continuous cooling and accretion of gas within a merging hierarchy of dark matter halos. A simple Kennicutt law of star formation for…
At high redshift, starburst galaxies present irregular morphologies, with 10-20\%\ of their star formation occurring in giant clumps. These clumpy galaxies are considered to be the progenitors of local disk galaxies. To understand the…
The evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function is especially useful to test the current model of galaxy formation. Observational data have revealed a few inconsistencies with predictions from the $\Lambda {\rm CDM}$ model. For example,…
[Abridged] Recent studies revealed a strong correlation between the star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass of star-forming galaxies, the so-called star-forming main sequence. An empirical modeling approach (2-SFM) which distinguishes…
We investigate how the star formation activity of galaxies depends on their position within the cosmic web using the SIMBA cosmological simulation from redshift $z=3$ to $z=0$. While previous studies found that galaxies closer to filaments…
The first bound star-forming systems in the universe are predicted to form at redshifts of about 30 and to have masses of the order of 10^6 M_sun. Although their sizes and masses are similar to those of present star-forming regions, their…