Related papers: The molecular cloud lifecycle
Over the past decade increasingly robust estimates of the dense molecular gas content in galaxy populations between redshift 0 and the peak of cosmic galaxy/star formation from redshift 1-3 have become available. This rapid progress has…
The molecular component of the Galaxy is comprised of turbulent, magnetized clouds, many of which are self-gravitating and form stars. To understand how these clouds' evolution may depend on their level of turbulence, mean magnetization,…
The gas surrounding galaxies outside their disks or interstellar medium and inside their virial radii is known as the circumgalactic medium (CGM). In recent years this component of galaxies has assumed an important role in our understanding…
The morphology of massive star-forming galaxies at high redshift is often dominated by giant clumps of mass ~10^8-10^9 Msun and size ~100-1000 pc. Previous studies have proposed that giant clumps might have an important role in the…
We examine the role of the large-scale galactic-dynamical environment in setting the properties of giant molecular clouds in Milky Way-like galaxies. We perform three high-resolution simulations of Milky Way-like discs with the moving-mesh…
Context. Stellar feedback regulates star formation and shapes the interstellar medium, yet its role during the collapse of molecular clouds remains uncertain over a wide range of initial conditions. Aims. We explore how stellar winds and…
We analyse extinction maps of nearby Giant Molecular Clouds to forge a link between driving processes of turbulence and modes of star formation. Our investigation focuses on cloud structure in the column density range above the self…
Ongoing accretion of low-metallicity gas onto the disk is a natural prediction of semi-analytical Galactic chemical evolution models. This star formation fuel ameliorates the overproduction of metal-poor G- and K-dwarfs in the solar…
To shed light on the time evolution of local star formation episodes in M33, we study the association between 566 Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), identified through the CO (J=2-1) IRAM-all-disk survey, and 630 Young Stellar Cluster…
Magnetic fields play a very important role in the evolution of galaxies through their direct impact on star formation and stellar feedback-induced turbulence. However, their co-evolution with these processes has still not been thoroughly…
We investigated the giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in M74 (NGC 628), using data obtained from the PHANGS project. We applied the GMC Types according to the activity of star formation: Type I without star formation, Type II with H$\alpha$…
CO clouds can be non-self-gravitating in high pressure environments, while most should be strongly self-gravitating at low metallicities and ambient pressures. In the LMC, which is HI-rich, GMC formation and destruction should generally…
Recent observations have revealed that starburst galaxies can drive molecular gas outflows through stellar radiation pressure. Molecular gas is the phase of the interstellar medium from which stars form, so these outflows curtail stellar…
The central molecular zone (CMZ) hosts some of the most massive and dense molecular clouds and star clusters in the Galaxy, offering an important window into star formation under extreme conditions. Star formation in this extreme…
Metals -- heavy elements synthesized during various phases of stellar evolution or during supernova explosions -- play a fundamental role in shaping galaxy evolution. In fact, their relative abundances, spatial distribution, and scaling…
Recent progress in the understanding of star formation is summarized. A consistent picture is emerging where molecular clouds form with turbulent velocity fields and clumpy substructure, imprinted already during their formation. The clouds…
The cold interstellar medium (ISM) plays a central role in the galaxy evolution process. It is the reservoir that fuels galaxy growth via star formation, the repository of material formed by these stars, and a sensitive tracer of internal…
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,…
Galaxy interactions expel a significant amount of stars and gas into the surrounding environment. I review the formation and evolution of the tidal debris spawned during these collisions, and describe how this evolution depends on the large…
Collisions between giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are one of the pathways for massive star formation, due to the high densities created. However the enhancement of the star formation rate (SFR) is not well constrained. In this study we…