Related papers: Star and cluster formation in extreme environments
The conditions required for massive star formation are debated, particularly whether massive stars must form in conjunction with massive clusters. Some authors have advanced the view that stars of any mass (below the total cluster mass) can…
In the last decade we have come to realize that the traditional classification of stellar clusters into open and globular clusters cannot be easily extended beyond the realm of the Milky Way, and that even for our Galaxy it is not fully…
Stars in star clusters are thought to form in a single burst from a common progenitor cloud of molecular gas. However, massive, old globular clusters -- with ages greater than 10 billion years and masses of several hundred thousand solar…
[abridged] How does a star cluster of more than few 10,000 solar masses form? We present the case of the cluster NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud, and its star-forming region N66, and we propose a scenario for its formation, based on…
Star formation plays a central role in the evolution of galaxies and of the Universe as a whole. Studies of star-forming regions in the local universe have shown that star formation typically occurs in a clustered fashion. Building a…
The formation of globular clusters remains an open debate. Dwarf starburst galaxies are efficient at forming young massive clusters with similar masses as globular clusters and may hold the key to understanding their formation. We study…
Stars form predominantly in clusters inside dense clumps of molecular clouds that are both turbulent and magnetized. The typical size and mass of the cluster-forming clumps are $\sim 1$ pc and $\sim 10^2 - $ 10$^3$ M$_\odot$, respectively.…
We perform high resolution simulations of forming star clusters as they merge inside giant molecular clouds (GMCs) using hydrodynamics coupled to N-body dynamics to simultaneously model both the gas and stars. We zoom in to previously run…
The properties of old globular cluster systems (GCSs) in galaxy halos offer unique insight into the physical processes that conspire to form any generic star cluster, at any epoch. Presented here is a summary of the information obtained…
The luminosity function (LF) of young star clusters is often approximated by a power law function. For clusters in a wide range of galactic environments this has resulted in fit indices near -2, but on average slightly steeper. A…
{Aims.} We present the main results of an imaging survey of possible young massive clusters (YMC) in M31 performed with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera2 (WFPC2) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We present the images and color…
Context: The earliest stages of high-mass star formation are still poorly characterized. It is also unknown whether the initial conditions vary with environment. Aims: We want to investigate the youngest massive gas clumps in the…
We test whether the masses of old globular clusters (GCs) in dwarf galaxies are consistent with the same initial mass spectrum as young massive clusters (YMCs) in nearby star-forming galaxies. The most massive GCs of dwarf galaxies are…
Stars and star clusters form by gravoturbulent fragmentation of interstellar gas clouds. The supersonic turbulence ubiquitously observed in Galactic molecular gas generates strong density fluctuations with gravity taking over in the densest…
HST WFPC1 observations revealed 738 bright star clusters spread over the inner 12 kpc of the interacting galaxy pair NGC 4038/39. If the young star clusters (YSCs) formed in the global starburst are (proto-) globular or open clusters has…
Observations of globular clusters show that they have universal lognormal mass functions with a characteristic peak at $\sim 2\times 10^{5}\, {\rm{M_{\odot}}}$, but the origin of this peaked distribution is highly debated. Here we…
The properties of young massive clusters (YMCs) are key to understanding the star formation mechanism in starburst systems, especially mergers. We present ALMA high-resolution ($\sim$10 pc) continuum (100 and 345 GHz) data of YMCs in the…
We analyse the population of bright star clusters in the interacting galaxy pair NGC 4038/39 detected with HST WFPC1 by Whitmore & Schweizer (1995) using our spectrophotometric evolutionary synthesis models for various initial…
Central cluster galaxies are the largest and most massive galaxies in the Universe. Although they host very old stellar populations, several studies found the existence of blue cores in some BCGs indicating ongoing star formation. We…
We analyse the cluster luminosity functions (CLFs) of the youngest star clusters in three galaxies exhibiting prominent circumnuclear starburst rings. We focus specifically on NGC 1512 and NGC 6951, for which we have access to H$\alpha$…