Related papers: Star formation in infrared dark clouds: Self-gravi…
Angular momentum plays a crucial role in the formation of stars and planets. It has long been noticed that parcels of gas in molecular clouds need to reduce their specific angular momentum by 6 to 7 orders of magnitude to participate in the…
Cold dark clouds are nearby members of the densest and coldest phase in the galactic interstellar medium, and represent the most accessible sites where stars like our Sun are currently being born. In this review we discuss recent progress…
We review the progress made in understanding molecular cloud formation and evolution toward star formation since the first Crete conference in 1990. It now seems clear that molecular clouds in the Galaxy at least form from compressed HI…
It has been known for more than 30 years that star formation in giant molecular clouds (GMCs) is slow, in the sense that only ~1% of the gas forms stars every free-fall time. This result is entirely independent of any particular model of…
We discuss the role of turbulence in cloud and star formation, as observed in numerical simulations of the interstellar medium. Turbulent compression at the interfaces of colliding gas streams is responsible for the formation 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…
High-mass stars have an enormous influence on the evolution of the interstellar medium in galaxies, so it is important that we understand how they form. We examine the central clumps within a sample of seven infrared-dark clouds (IRDCs)…
More and more observations indicate that young star clusters could retain imprints of their formation process. In particular, the degree of substructuring and rotation are possibly the direct result of the collapse of the parent molecular…
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…
The radiative and mechanical interaction of stars with their environment drives the evolution of the ISM and of galaxies as a whole. The far-IR emission (lambda ~30 to 350 microns) from atoms and molecules dominates the cooling of the warm…
The impact of winds and jet-inflated bubbles driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are believed to significantly affect the host galaxy's interstellar medium (ISM) and regulate star formation. To explore this scenario, we perform a suite…
Nanometer- and micrometer-sized solid particles play an important role in the evolutionary cycle of stars and interstellar matter. The optical properties of cosmic grains determine the interaction of the radiation field with the solids,…
Understanding star formation is problematic as it originates in the large scale dynamics of a galaxy but occurs on the small scale of an individual star forming event. This paper presents the first numerical simulations to resolve the star…
We summarize the properties of Infrared Dark Clouds, massive, dense, and cool aggregations of interstellar gas and dust that are found througout the Galaxy in projection against the strong mid-infrared background. We describe 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…
The observed rapid onset of star formation in molecular clouds requires rapid formation of dense fragments which can collapse individually before being overtaken by global gravitationally-driven flows. Many previous investigations have…
I review (1) Physics of Star Formation & Open Questions; (2) Structure & Dynamics of Star-Forming Clouds & Young Clusters; (3) Star Formation Rates: Observations & Theoretical Implications.
Recent optical observations have led to a significant progress in our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. However, our view on the deep universe is currently limited to the starlight which directly escapes from high-redshift…
We present virial models for the global evolution of giant molecular clouds. Focusing on the presence of an accretion flow, and accounting for the amount of mass, momentum, and energy supplied by accretion and star formation feedback, we…
We describe the results of observations of galaxy clusters conducted with ISOCAM on-board the Infrared Space Observatory. Our research is aimed at understanding the processes driving galaxy evolution in dense environments, free from the…