Related papers: Explaining the luminosity spread in young clusters…
Aims: Our aim is to understand the evolutionary sequence of high-mass star formation from the earliest evolutionary stage of high-mass starless cores, via high-mass cores with embedded low- to intermediate-mass objects, to finally high-mass…
In previous contributions, we have presented an analytical model describing the evolution of molecular clouds (MCs) undergoing hierarchical gravitational contraction. The cloud's evolution is characterized by an initial increase in its…
We discuss problems with some observational estimates indicating long protostellar core lifetimes and large stellar age spreads in molecular clouds. We also point out some additional observational constraints which suggest that protostellar…
Context: Understanding how protostars accrete their mass is a central question of star formation. One aspect of this is trying to understand whether the time evolution of accretion rates in deeply embedded objects is best characterised by a…
Accretion-driven luminosity outbursts are a vivid manifestation of variable mass accretion onto protostars. They are known as the so-called FU Orionis phenomenon in the context of low-mass protostars. More recently, this process has been…
In previous works, we have shown that stars in the Orion and the Lagoon Nebula Clusters, and simulations of collapsing clouds, exhibit constant velocity dispersion as a function of mass, a result described by Lynden-Bell 50 years ago as an…
We show that the termination of the star formation process by winds from massive stars in protocluster forming clumps imposes dual constraints on the star formation efficiencies (SFEs) and stellar age spreads ($\Delta \tau_{*}$) in stellar…
The presence of young stellar populations in the Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC 1783 has caught significant attention, with suggestions ranging from it being a genuine secondary stellar generation to a population of blue straggler stars…
We study the formation of the protoplanetary disk by the collapse of a primordial molecular cloud, and how its evolution leads to the selection of specific types of planets. We use a hydrodynamical code that accounts for the dynamics,…
We investigate the formation of both clustered and distributed populations of young stars in a single molecular cloud. We present a numerical simulation of a 10,000 solar mass elongated, turbulent, molecular cloud and the formation of over…
The cosmic dark ages ended a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars began to fill the universe with new light. It has generally been argued that these stars formed in isolation and were extremely massive -…
We supplement current evolutionary computations concerning Magellanic Cloud stars by exploring the evolutionary behavior of canonical stellar models (i.e.,with inefficient core overshooting) with metallicities suitable for stars in the…
The early evolution of protostellar disks with metallicities in the $Z=1.0-0.01~Z_\odot$ range was studied with a particular emphasis on the strength of gravitational instability and the nature of protostellar accretion in low-metallicity…
We present a method to couple N-body star cluster simulations to a cosmological tidal field, using the Astrophysical Multipurpose Software Environment. We apply this method to star clusters embedded in the CosmoGrid dark matter-only…
We present a study correlating the spatial locations of young star clusters with those of molecular clouds in NGC~5194, in order to investigate the timescale over which clusters separate from their birth clouds. The star cluster catalogues…
Mass segregation is observed in many star clusters, including several that are less than a few Myr old. Timescale arguments are frequently used to argue that these clusters must be displaying primordial segregation, because they are too…
Studies of evolved massive stars indicate that they form in a clustered mode. During the earliest evolutionary stages, these regions are embedded within their natal cores. Here, we show high-spatial-resolution interferometric dust continuum…
We present colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for a sample of seven young massive clusters in the galaxies NGC 1313, NGC 1569, NGC 1705, NGC 5236 and NGC 7793. The clusters have ages in the range 5-50 million years and masses of 10^5 -10^6…
In this third paper of a series on the precision of obtaining ages of stellar populations using the full spectrum fitting technique, we examine the precision of this technique in deriving possible age spreads within a star cluster. We test…
Our current understanding of the physical processes of star formation is reviewed, with emphasis on processes occurring in molecular clouds like those observed nearby. The dense cores of these clouds are predicted to undergo gravitational…