Related papers: Forming spectroscopic massive proto-binaries by di…
Most stars are born in the crowded environments of gradually forming star clusters. Dynamical interactions between close-passing stars and the evolving UV radiation fields from proximate massive stars are expected to sculpt the…
Isolated low-mass stars are formed, in the standard picture, from the collapse of dense cores condensed out of strongly magnetized molecular clouds. The dynamically collapsing inflow traps nearly half of the critical magnetic flux needed…
A large fraction of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars may form by gravitational fragmentation of relatively massive (a few 0.1 Msun), extended (a few hundred AU) discs around Sun-like stars. We present an ensemble of radiative hydrodynamic…
Our understanding of population III star formation is still in its infancy. They are formed in dark matter minihalos of $\rm 10^5-10^6 M_{\odot}$ at $z=20-30$. Recent high resolution cosmological simulations show that a protostellar disk…
The initial mass function of the first, Population III (Pop III), stars plays a vital role in shaping galaxy formation and evolution in the early Universe. One key remaining issue is the final fate of secondary protostars formed in the…
A new model for the formation of Jovian planets is proposed. We consider planets forming at large distances from a protostar (>100 AU) through direct fragmentation of a gas cloud, by the same formation mechanism as wide stellar and brown…
This chapter reviews the dynamical processes in young stellar clusters. The accretion of gas by individual stars affects the dynamics of the cluster, and the masses of the stars. Dynamical mass segregation cannot explain the degree of mass…
Star and planet formation are inextricably linked. In the earliest phases of the collapse of a protostar a disc forms around the young star and such discs are observed for the first several million years of a star's life. It is within these…
The evolution of protoplanetary discs embedded in stellar clusters depends on the age and the stellar density in which they are embedded. Stellar clusters of young age and high stellar surface density destroy protoplanetary discs by…
I discuss the role that disc fragmentation plays in the formation of gas giant and terrestrial planets, and how this relates to the formation of brown dwarfs and low-mass stars, and ultimately to the process of star formation. Protostellar…
We use time-dependent, one-dimensional disc models to investigate the evolution of protostellar discs that form through the collapse of molecular cloud cores and in which the primary transport mechanism is self-gravity. We assume that these…
We revisit our original papers on the burst mode of accretion by incorporating a detailed energy balance equation into a thin-disk model for the formation and evolution of circumstellar disks around low-mass protostars.Our model includes…
Mass accretion onto (proto-)stars at high accretion rates > 10^-4 M_sun/yr is expected in massive star formation. We study the evolution of massive protostars at such high rates by numerically solving the stellar structure equations. In…
We propose a scenario in which massive stars form in a self-gravitating gaseous disc around a supermassive black hole. We find that once the surface density of the disc exceeds a critical value, the disc fragments into dense clumps. The…
Planet formation via core accretion involves the growth of solids that can accumulate to form planetary cores. There are a number of barriers to the collisional growth of solids in protostellar discs, one of which is the drift, or metre,…
3D simulations of high mass young stellar object (HMYSO) growth show that their circumstellar discs fragment onto multiple self-gravitating objects. Accretion of these by HMYSO may explain episodic accretion bursts discovered recently. We…
Episodic accretion-driven outbursts are an extreme manifestation of accretion variability. It has been proposed that the development of gravitational instabilities in the proto-circumstellar medium of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs)…
The most massive stars can form via standard disk accretion - despite of the radiation pressure generated - due to the fact that the massive accretion disk yields a strong anisotropy in the radiation field, releasing most of the radiation…
We carry out global three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical simulations of self-gravitating accretion discs to determine if, and under what conditions, a disc may fragment to form giant planets. We explore the parameter space (in terms…
The disks that orbit young stars are the essential conduits and reservoirs of material for star and planet formation. Their structures, meaning the spatial variations of the disk physical conditions, reflect the underlying mechanisms that…