Related papers: Simulations of the star-forming molecular gas in a…
All stars are born in molecular clouds, and most in giant molecular clouds (GMCs), which thus set the star formation activity of galaxies. We first review their observed properties, including measures of mass surface density, Sigma, and…
We present the results of a numerical simulation in which star formation proceeds from an initially unbound molecular cloud core. The turbulent motions, which dominate the dynamics, dissipate in shocks leaving a quiescent region which…
In an exploration of the birthplaces of globular clusters, we present a careful examination of the formation of self-gravitating gas clouds within assembling dark matter haloes in a hierarchical cosmological model. Our high-resolution…
The processes regulating star formation in galaxies are thought to act across a hierarchy of spatial scales. To connect extragalactic star formation relations from global and kpc-scale measurements to recent cloud-scale resolution studies,…
Giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are well-studied in the local Universe, however, exactly how their properties vary during galaxy evolution is poorly understood due to challenging resolution requirements, both observational and computational.…
We present a self-consistent hydrodynamical simulation of a Milky Way-like galaxy, at the resolution of 0.05 pc. The model includes star formation and a new implementation of stellar feedback through photo-ionization, radiative pressure and…
We introduce a new suite of simulations, "The Cloud Factory", which self-consistently forms molecular cloud complexes at high enough resolution to resolve internal substructure (up to 0.25 Msol in mass) all while including galactic-scale…
We propose a simple analytic theory for environmentally-dependent molecular cloud lifetimes, based on the large-scale (galactic) dynamics of the interstellar medium. Within this theory, the cloud lifetime is set by the time-scales for…
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…
We describe simulations of the response of a gaseous disc to an active spiral potential. The potential is derived from an N-body calculation and leads to a multi-armed time-evolving pattern. The gas forms long spiral arms typical of grand…
The processes of star formation and feedback, regulating the cycle of matter between gas and stars on the scales of giant molecular clouds (GMCs; $\sim$100pc), play a major role in governing galaxy evolution. Measuring the time-scales of…
A large fraction of the gas in the Galaxy is cold, dense, and molecular. If all this gas collapsed under the influence of gravity and formed stars in a local free-fall time, the star formation rate in the Galaxy would exceed that observed…
I review observational studies of the large-scale star formation process in nearby galaxies. A wealth of new multi-wavelength data provide an unprecedented view on the interplay of the interstellar medium and (young) stellar populations on…
(abridged) We use large cosmological simulations to study the origin of primordial star-forming clouds in a Lambda CDM universe, by following the formation of dark matter halos and the cooling of gas within them. To model the physics of…
We present an end-to-end description of the formation process of globular clusters (GCs) which combines a treatment for their formation and dynamical evolution within galaxy haloes with a state-of-the-art semi-analytic simulation of galaxy…
We present new observations of a 2' field in the north-eastern spiral arm of M31. In the 0.8 x 3.6 kpc mosaicked region, we have detected six distinct, large complexes of molecular gas, most of which lie along the spiral arm dust lane or in…
We extend existing semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to track atomic and molecular gas in disk galaxies. Simple recipes for processes such as cooling, star formation, supernova feedback, and chemical enrichment of the stars and gas…
Simulations from the scales of isolated galaxies to clouds have been instrumental in informing us about molecular cloud formation and evolution. Simulations are able to investigate the roles of gravity, feedback, turbulence, heating and…
The shape of the cold interstellar molecular gas is determined by several processes, including self-gravity, tidal force, turbulence, magnetic field, and galactic shear. Based on the 3D dust extinction map derived by Vergely et al., we…
TreeSPH simulations of galaxy formation in a LCDM cosmology, with star formation, energetic stellar feedback and a meta-galactic UV field have been performed, resulting in realistic disk, S0 and E galaxies at z=0. The disk galaxies are…