Related papers: Star Formation in the Extreme Galactic Center Envi…
Star formation is intimately linked to the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds. Turbulent fragmentation determines where and when protostellar cores form, and how they contract and grow in mass via accretion from the surrounding cloud…
The closest galaxy center, our own Central Molecular Zone (CMZ; the central 500 pc of the Milky Way), is a powerful laboratory for studying the secular processes that shape galaxies across cosmic time, from large-scale gas flows and star…
In this chapter we review the young stars and molecular clouds found at high Galactic latitudes $(|b| \ge 30^\circ)$. These are mostly associated with two large-scale structures on the sky, the Gould Belt and the Taurus star formation…
A model of core-clump accretion with equally likely stopping describes star formation in the dense parts of clusters, where models of isolated collapsing cores may not apply. Each core accretes at a constant rate onto its protostar, while…
The extraordinary starbursts found in ultraluminous IR galaxies occur in molecular gas concentrated in compact very massive "clouds" which we call "Extreme Starbursts". They have one thousand times the mass but are only a few times larger…
We present the results of SPH simulations in which two clouds, each having mass $M_{_{\rm{o}}}\!=\!500\,{\rm M}_{_\odot}$ and radius $R_{_{\rm{o}}}\!=\!2\,{\rm pc}$, collide head-on at relative velocities of $\Delta v_{_{\rm{o}}}…
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…
Circumnuclear star forming regions, also called hotspots, are often found in the inner regions of some spiral galaxies where intense processes of star formation are taking place. In the UV, massive stars dominate the observed circumnuclear…
We performed a search of star-forming sites influenced by external factors, such as SNRs, HII regions, and cloud-cloud collisions, to understand the star-forming activity in the Galactic center region using the NRO Galactic Center Survey in…
In this paper we investigate the level of star formation activity within nearby molecular clouds. We employ a uniform set of infrared extinction maps to provide accurate assessments of cloud mass and structure and compare these with…
In young star clusters, the density can be high enough and the velocity dispersion low enough for stars to collide and merge with a significant probability. This has been suggested as a possible way to build up the high-mass portion of the…
Cloud environment is thought to play a critical role in determining the mechanism of formation of massive stars. In this contribution we review the physical characteristics of the environment around recently formed massive stars. Particular…
We present hydrodynamic simulations of gas clouds in the central kpc region of the Milky Way that is modeled with a three-dimensional bar potential. Our simulations consider realistic gas cooling and heating, star formation, and supernova…
Stars form from cold molecular interstellar gas. Since this is relatively rare in the local Universe, galaxies like the Milky Way form only a few new stars per year. Typical massive galaxies in the distant Universe formed stars an order of…
Our Galactic Center hosts over 10% of the known massive stars in the Galaxy. The majority of these stars are located in three particularly massive clusters that formed within the past 5 Myr. While these clusters are extraordinary, their…
We recently presented a model for the cluster formation efficiency (CFE), i.e. the fraction of star formation occurring in bound stellar clusters. It utilizes the idea that the formation of stars and stellar clusters occurs across a…
We develop an empirical approach to infer the star formation rate in dark matter halos from the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) at different redshifts and the local cluster galaxy luminosity function (CGLF), which has a steeper faint end…
Magnetic fields of molecular clouds in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) have been relatively underobserved at sub-parsec resolution. Here we report JCMT/POL2 observations of polarized dust emission in the CMZ, which reveal magnetic field…
Nuclear stellar cluster (NSCs) are known to exist around massive black holes (MBHs) in galactic nuclei. Two formation scenarios were suggested for their origin: Build-up of NSCs and Continuous in-situ star-formation. Here we study the…
Star formation occurs within dense regions of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), however, exactly how gas collects and evolves to form individual stars and what role dense cores play remains unclear. We use the Lagrangian cell information in…