Related papers: An Observational View of Structure in Protostellar…
The field of planet formation is in an exciting era, where recent observations of disks around low- to intermediate-mass stars made with state of the art interferometers and high-contrast optical and IR facilities have revealed a diversity…
The concept that stars form in the modern era began some 60 years ago with the key observation of expanding OB associations. Now we see that these associations are an intermediate scale in a cascade of hierarchical structures that begins on…
We still do not understand how planets form, or why extra-solar planetary systems are so different from our own solar system. But the last few years have dramatically changed our view of the discs of gas and dust around young stars.…
Volatiles are compounds with low sublimation temperatures, and they make up most of the condensible mass in typical planet-forming environments. They consist of relatively small, often hydrogenated, molecules based on the abundant elements…
The collapse of interstellar gaseous clouds towards a protostar leads to the formation of accretion disks around the central star. Such disks can be dynamically stable if they settle in an axisymmetric state. In this letter, we investigate…
Massive young stellar object (MYSOs) form during the collapse of high-mass pre-stellar cores, where infalling molecular material is accreted through a centrifugally-balanced accretion disc that is subject to efficient gravitational…
I summarize recent surveys of protoplanetary disks at millimeter wavelengths and show that the distribution of luminosity, equivalent to the mass in small dust grains, declines rapidly. This contrasts with statistics on the lifetime of…
High-spatial-resolution observations of disks around young stars suggest planetary systems begin forming early, during the protostellar phase (< 1 Myr) when stars accrete most of their mass via infall from the surrounding cloud. During this…
I attempt to summarize our knowledge of planet formation in evolving protoplanetary discs. I first review the physics of disc evolution and dispersal. For most of the disc lifetime evolution is driven by accretion and photoevaporation, and…
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…
It is expected that an average protostar will undergo at least one impulsive interaction with a neighbouring protostar whilst a large fraction of its mass is still in a massive, extended disc. If protostars are formed individually within a…
The study of the development of structures on multiple scales in the cold interstellar medium has experienced rapid expansion in the past decade, on both the observational and the theoretical front. Spectral line studies at (sub-)millimeter…
We summarize some of the compelling new scientific opportunities for understanding stars and stellar systems that can be enabled by sub-milliarcsec (sub-mas) angular resolution, UV-Optical spectral imaging observations, which can reveal the…
We present an overview of the Large Program, ``Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks (eDisk)'', conducted with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The ubiquitous detections of substructures, particularly rings and…
The formation epoch of protostellar disks is debated because of the competing roles of rotation, turbulence, and magnetic fields in the early stages of low-mass star formation. Magnetohydrodynamics simulations of collapsing cores predict…
The solid content of circumstellar disks is inherited from the interstellar medium: dust particles of at most a micrometer in size. Protoplanetary disks are the environment where these dust grains need to grow at least 13 orders of…
We suggest that planets, brown dwarfs, and even low mass stars can be formed by fragmentation of protoplanetary disks around very massive stars M>~100 solar masses. We discuss how fragmentation conditions make the formation of very massive…
Annular structures, or rings and gaps, in disks around pre-main sequence stars have been detected in abundance towards Class II objects ~1,000,000 years in age. These structures are often interpreted as evidence of planet formation, with…
We review the recent observations of protoplanetary disks together with relevant theoretical studies with an emphasis on the evolution of volatiles. In the last several years Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) provided…
I review theoretical models of star formation and how they apply across the stellar mass spectrum. Several distinct theories are under active study for massive star formation, especially Turbulent Core Accretion, Competitive Accretion and…