Related papers: Initial Conditions for Massive Star Birth -- Infra…
The first stars to form in the history of the universe may have been powered by dark matter annihilation rather than by fusion. This new phase of stellar evolution may have lasted millions to billions of years. These dark stars can grow to…
An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within…
We perform a set of cosmological simulations of early structure formation with incorporating baryonic streaming motions. We present a case where a significantly elongated gas cloud with $\sim\!10^4\,$solar masses (${\rm M_\odot}$) is formed…
We present a set of coupled equations that relate the stellar, gaseous, chemical, and radiation constituents of the universe averaged over the whole galaxy population. Using as input the available data from quasar absorption-line surveys,…
Cool luminous giants, in particular asymptotic giant branch stars, are among the most important sources of cosmic dust. Their extended dynamical atmospheres are places where grains form and initiate outflows driven by radiation pressure,…
The largest galaxies acquire their mass early on, when the Universe is still youthful. Cold streams violently feed these young galaxies a vast amount of fresh gas, resulting in very efficient star formation. Using a well resolved…
The current generation of millimeter interferometers have revealed a population of compact (r <~ 0.1 pc), massive (M ~ 100 Msun) gas cores that are the likely progenitors of massive stars. I review models for the evolution of these objects…
Whilst young massive clusters (YMCs; $M$ $\gtrsim$ 10$^{4}$ M$_{\odot}$, age $\lesssim$ 100 Myr) have been identified in significant numbers, their progenitor gas clouds have eluded detection. Recently, four extreme molecular clouds…
Infrared dark clouds are massive, dense clouds seen in extinction against the IR Galactic background. Many of these objects appear to be on the verge of star and star cluster formation. Our aim is to understand the physical properties of…
The dust reservoir in the interstellar medium of a galaxy is constantly being replenished by dust formed in the stellar winds of evolved stars. Due to their vicinity, nearby irregular dwarf galaxies the Magellanic Clouds provide an…
We calculate the contribution to the cosmic infrared background from very massive metal-free stars at high redshift. We explore two plausible star-formation models and two limiting cases for the reprocessing of the ionizing stellar…
Thermal and chemical evolution of primordial gas clouds irradiated with far-ultraviolet (FUV; < 13.6 eV) radiation is investigated. In clouds irradiated by intense FUV radiation, sufficient hydrogen molecules to be important for cooling are…
Many massive galaxies at the centres of relaxed galaxy clusters and groups have vast reservoirs of cool (~10,000 K) and cold (~100 K) gas. In many low redshift brightest group and cluster galaxies this gas is lifted into the hot ISM in…
The mass growth of protostars is a central element to the determination of fundamental stellar population properties such as the initial mass function. Constraining the accretion history of individual protostars is therefore an important…
In recent years it became clear that a population of galaxies radiating most of their power in the far-infrared contribute an important part of the whole star formation activity in the universe. These galaxies emit up to 99% of their energy…
The enormous radiative and mechanical luminosities of massive stars impact a vast range of scales and processes, from the reionization of the universe, to the evolution of galaxies, to the regulation of the interstellar medium, to the…
The formation of massive stars is an outstanding problem in stellar evolution. However, it is expected that they are (predominantly) born in heirarchical environments within massive young clusters, which in turn are located within larger…
We calculate the formation of dust clouds in atmospheres of giant gas-planets. The chemical structure and the evolution of the grain size distribution in the dust cloud layer is discussed based on a consistent treatment of seed formation,…
Massive clumps tend to fragment into clusters of cores and condensations, some of which form high-mass stars. In this work, we study the structure of massive clumps at different scales, analyze the fragmentation process, and investigate the…
The dense, cold gas of Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) is thought to be representative of the initial conditions of massive star and star cluster formation. We analyze 13CO(J=1-0) line emission data from the Galactic Ring Survey of Jackson et…