Related papers: Using young massive star clusters to understand st…
The environment within the inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way, known as the "Central Molecular Zone" (CMZ), harbours densities and pressures orders of magnitude higher than the Galactic Disc; akin to that at the peak of cosmic star…
I discuss current observational constraints on the star-formation and stellar-assembly histories of galaxies at high redshifts. The data on massive galaxies at z<1 implies that their stellar populations formed at z>2, and that their…
Stars form by gravoturbulent fragmentation of interstellar gas clouds. The supersonic turbulence ubiquitously observed in Galactic molecular gas generates strong density fluctuations with gravity taking over in the densest and most massive…
How Very Young Massive star Clusters (VYMCs; also known as "starburst" clusters), which typically are of $\gtrsim 10^4M_\odot$ and are a few Myr old, form out of Giant Molecular Clouds is still largely an open question. Increasingly…
We investigate the formation and early evolution of star clusters assuming that they form from a turbulent starless clump of given mass bounded inside a parent self-gravitating molecular cloud characterized by a particular mass surface…
One of the outstanding puzzles about star formation is why it proceeds so slowly. Giant molecular clouds convert only a few percent of their gas into stars per free-fall time, and recent observations show that this low star formation rate…
Massive galaxy clusters are now found as early as 3 billion years after the Big Bang, containing stars that formed at even earlier epochs. The high-redshift progenitors of these galaxy clusters, termed 'protoclusters', are identified in…
We explore the constraints on globular cluster formation provided by the observed conditions in starbursts where globulars are currently forming, and by the observed properties of young and old globular clusters. We note that the pressure…
Using studies of nearby star formation with Spitzer, I will argue that star formation is restricted to dense cores within molecular clouds. The nature of these dense cores and their connection to star formation will be discussed. Their…
We propose a simple analytic model to understand when star formation is time-steady versus bursty in galaxies. Recent models explain the observed Kennicutt-Schmidt relation between star formation rate and gas surface densities in galaxies…
Star-forming regions presenting a density gradient experience a higher star formation rate than if they were of uniform density. We refer to the ratio between the star formation rate of a spherical centrally-concentrated gas clump and the…
Analysis of the deepest available images of the sky, obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveals a large number of candidate high-redshift galaxies. A catalogue of 1,683 objects is presented, with estimated redshifts ranging from $z=0$…
I present recent observations and analyses of star cluster formation in a wide variety of environments -- from young star clusters and super star clusters in normal actively star-forming spirals and irregulars to starbursting dwarfs and…
We report the formation of bound star clusters in a sample of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of z>5 galaxies from the FIRE project. We find that bound clusters preferentially form in high-pressure clouds with gas surface…
I review the evidence for the importance of feedback from massive stars at small and large scales. The feedback mechanisms include accretion luminosity, ionizing radiation, collimated outflows, and stellar winds. The good news is that…
The formation of stars from gas drives the evolution of galaxies. Yet, it remains one of the hardest processes to understand when trying to connect observations of stellar and galaxy populations to models of large scale structure formation.…
The young star clusters we observe today are the building blocks of a new generation of stars and planets in our Galaxy and beyond. Despite their fundamental role we still lack knowledge about the conditions under which star clusters form…
We argue that rich star clusters take at least several local dynamical times to form, and so are quasi-equilibrium structures during their assembly. Observations supporting this conclusion include morphologies of star-forming clumps,…
Massive stars blow powerful winds and eventually explode as supernovae. By doing so, they inject energy and momentum in the circumstellar medium, which is pushed away from the star and piles up to form a dense and expanding shell of gas.…
Stellar clusters are critical constituents within galaxies: they are the result of highest-density star formation, and through their spatially and temporally correlated feedback they regulate their host galaxy evolution. We present a novel…