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Due to their low gravitational energies, dwarf galaxies are greatly exposed to energetical influences from internal and external sources. By means of chemodynamical models we show that their star formation is inherently self-regulated, that…
Dwarf galaxies are ideal laboratories to test dark matter models and alternative theories because their dynamical mass (from observed kinematics) largely outweighs their baryonic mass (from gas and stars). In most star-forming dwarfs, cold…
With an increased appreciation for the role of gas in galaxy evolution, there is renewed interest in measuring gas masses for galaxies. I review some of the basic concepts in using CO to determine molecular masses, and discuss some of the…
Carbon monoxide (CO) is the primary tracer for interstellar clouds where stars form, yet CO has never been detected in galaxies with an Oxygen abundance relative to Hydrogen less than 20% of solar, even though such low metallicity galaxies…
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…
In order to understand galaxy evolution through cosmic times it is critical to derive the properties of the molecular gas content of galaxies, i.e. the material out of which stars ultimately form. The last decade has seen rapid progress in…
In most galaxies like the Milky Way, stars form in clouds of molecular gas. Unlike the CO emission that traces the bulk of molecular gas, the rotational transitions of HCN and CS molecules mainly probe the dense phase of molecular gas,…
The central problem of galaxy formation is understanding the cooling and condensation of gas in dark matter halos. It is now clear that to match observations this requires further physics than the simple assumptions of single phase gas…
Dwarf galaxies pose significant challenges for cosmological models. In particular, current models predict a dark matter density that is divergent at the center, in sharp contrast with observations which indicate an approximately constant…
Molecular clouds are a fundamental ingredient of galaxies: they are the channels that transform the diffuse gas into stars. The detailed process of how they do it is not completely understood. We review the current knowledge of molecular…
Studies of molecular clouds and young stars near the sun have provided invaluable insights into the process of star formation. Indeed, much of our physical understanding of this topic has been derived from such studies. Perhaps the two most…
We present the detection of molecular gas from galaxies located in nearby voids using the CO line emission as a tracer. The observations were done using the 45m Nobeyama Radio Telescope. Void galaxies lie in the most under dense parts of…
High spatial and spectral resolution observations of the atomic interstellar medium in nearby dwarf galaxies reveal evidence for warm and cold neutral gas, just like the phases in our own Galaxy. The cold or quiescent phase (about 20% of…
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…
We present new mm interferometric and optical integral-field unit (IFU) observations and construct a sample of 12 E and S0 galaxies with molecular gas which have both CO and optical maps. The galaxies contain 2 x 10^7 to 5 x 10^9 M\odot of…
We present the results of a survey of CO emission in 43 of the 48 representative E/S0 galaxies observed in the optical with the SAURON integral-field spectrograph. The CO detection rate is 12/43 or 28%. This is lower than previous studies…
Great strides have been made in the last two decades in determining how galaxies evolve from their initial dark matter seeds to the complex structures we observe at z=0. The role of mergers has been documented through both observations and…
Dwarf irregulars (dIrrs) are among the most common type of galaxy in the Universe. They typically have gas-rich, low surface-brightness, metal-poor, and relatively-thick disks. Here we summarize the current state of our knowledge of the…
Stars in galaxies form in giant molecular clouds that coalesce when the atomic hydrogen is converted into molecules. There are currently two dominant models for what property of the galactic disk determines its molecular fraction: either…
Stars form within molecular clouds, so characterizing the physical states of molecular clouds is key in understanding the process of star formation. Cloud structure and stability is frequently assessed using metrics including the virial…