Related papers: Transition of the initial mass function in the met…
The fragmentation of star-forming interstellar clouds, and the resulting stellar initial mass function (IMF), is strongly affected by the temperature structure of the collapsing gas. Since radiation feedback from embedded stars can modify…
The collapse and fragmentation of filamentary primordial gas clouds are explored using 1D and 2D hydrodynamical simulations coupled with the nonequilibrium processes of H2 formation. The simulations show that depending upon the initial…
It has frequently been suggested that the stellar IMF in galaxies was top-heavy at early times. This would be plausible physically if the IMF depends on a mass scale such as the Jeans mass that was higher at earlier times because of the…
We discuss star formation in the turbulent interstellar medium. We argue that morphological appearance and dynamical evolution of the gas is primarily determined by supersonic turbulence, and that stars form via a process we call…
The expected metal enrichment of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) and the partition of metals between cluster galaxies and the hot ICM depends on the stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF). The choice of the IMF in simulations of clusters has…
The earliest phases of clustered star formation and the origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) are currently much debated. In order to constrain the origin of the IMF, we investigated the internal and relative motions of starless…
Theoretical and indirect observational evidences suggest that stellar initial mass function (IMF) increases with redshift. On the other hand star formation rates (SFR) may be as high as 100 $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ in star burst galaxies.…
The possibility that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) arises mostly from cloud structure is investigated with fractal Brownian motion (fBm) clouds that have power-law power spectra. An fBm cloud with a realistic projected power…
The formation of molecular clouds out of HI gas is the first step toward star formation. Its metallicity dependence plays a key role to determine star formation through the cosmic history. Previous theoretical studies with detailed chemical…
The origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a fundamental issue in the theory of star formation. It is generally fit with a composite power law. Some clues on the progenitors can be found in dense starless cores that have a…
We present models of the cosmological star formation and metal production history of (proto-)galaxies with varying axis ratios. More massive and/or roughly spherical systems reach the threshold-metallicity for a transition to a multi-phase…
Cosmic rays (CRs) control the thermal, ionization and chemical state of the dense H_2 gas regions that otherwise remain shielded from far-UV and optical stellar radiation propagating through the dusty ISM of galaxies. It is in such…
We review progress in numerical simulations of star cluster formation. These simulations involve the bottom-up assembly of clusters through hierarchical mergers, which produces a fractal stellar distribution at young (~0.5 Myr) ages. The…
To constrain the nature of the very first stars, we investigate the collapse and fragmentation of primordial, metal-free gas clouds. We explore the physics of primordial star formation by means of three-dimensional simulations of the dark…
We study gravitational collapse of low-metallicity gas clouds and the formation of protostars by three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. Grain growth, non-equilibrium chemistry, molecular cooling, and chemical heating are solved in a…
The current status of both the observational evidence and the theory of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is reviewed, with particular attention to the two basic, apparently universal features shown by all observations of nearby…
We investigate the possibility of very early formation of primordial star clusters from high-\sigma perturbations in cold dark matter dominated structure formation scenarios. For this we have developed a powerful 2-level hierarchical…
The last decade has witnessed significant advances in our observational understanding of the earliest stages of low-mass star formation. The advent of sensitive receivers on large radio telescopes such as the JCMT and IRAM 30m MRT has led…
Theoretical arguments and indirect observational evidence suggest that the stellar initial mass function (IMF) may evolve with time, such that it is more weighted toward high mass stars at higher redshift. Here we test this idea by…
Dust and gas energetics are incorporated into a cluster-scale simulation of star formation in order to study the effect of heating and cooling on the star formation process. We build on our previous work by calculating separately the dust…