Related papers: The Fragmentation of Cores and the Initial Binary …
Star formation is spatially clustered across a range of environments, from dense stellar clusters to unbound associations. As a result, radiative or dynamical interactions with neighbouring stars disrupt (proto)planetary systems and limit…
The properties of multiple stellar systems have long provided important empirical constraints for star formation theories, enabling (along with several other lines of evidence) a concrete, qualitative picture of the birth and early…
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…
The evolution of a protostellar binary system is investigated while it is embedded in its parent molecular cloud core and acted upon by gas drag due to dynamical friction. Approximate analytical results are obtained for the energy and…
Globular clusters were thought to be simple stellar populations, but recent photometric and spectroscopic evidence suggests that the clusters' early formation history was more complicated. In particular, clusters show star-to-star abundance…
Disc fragmentation provides an important mechanism for producing low mass stars in prestellar cores. Here, we describe Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations which show how populations of prestellar cores evolve into stars. We find the…
Their ubiquity and extreme densities make star clusters probes of prime importance of galaxy evolution. Old globular clusters keep imprints of the physical conditions of their assembly in the early Universe, and younger stellar objects,…
Recent observations show that small, young, stellar groupings of ~10 to 40 members tend of have a centrally-located most massive member, reminiscent of mass segregation seen in large clustered systems. Here, we analyze hydrodynamic…
The dominant mechanism forming multiple stellar systems in the high-mass regime (M$_\ast \gtrsim $ 8 $M_{\odot}$) remained unknown because direct imaging of multiple protostellar systems at early phases of high-mass star formation is very…
It appears that most stars are born in clusters, and that at birth most stars have circumstellar discs which are comparable in size to the separations between the stars. Interactions between neighbouring stars and discs are therefore likely…
We present a novel approach to the riddle of star cluster multiple populations. Stars form from molecular cores. But not all cores form stars. Following their initial compression, such 'failed' cores re-expand, rather than collapsing. We…
The stellar-dynamical evolution of bound star clusters during the first few Myr is dominated by binary-binary and binary-star interactions, the rapid sinking of the most massive stars to the centre of the clusters and mass loss from…
Most observed stars are part of a multiple star system, but the formation of such systems and the role of environment and various physical processes is still poorly understood. We present a suite of radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations…
We examine the dynamical destruction of binary systems in star clusters of different densities. We find that at high densities (10^4 - 10^5 Msun pc^-3) almost all binaries with separations > 10^3 AU are destroyed after a few crossing times.…
Many galactic globular clusters (GCs) contain at least two stellar populations. Recent observational studies found that the radial distributions of the first (P1) and second population (P2) differ in dynamically-young GCs. Since P2 is…
The observed properties of young star clusters, such as the core radius and luminosity profile, change rapidly during the early evolution of the clusters. Here we present observations of 6 young clusters in M51 where we derive their sizes…
Most stars form in multiple systems, with profound implications in numerous astronomical phenomena intrinsically linked to multiplicity. However, our knowledge about the process on how multiple stellar systems form is incomplete and biased…
We present the results of a survey of N-body simulations aimed at exploring the evolution of compact binaries in multiple-population globular clusters.We show that as a consequence of the initial differences in the structural properties of…
The formation of massive stars in close binary systems is complicated due to their high radiation pressure, the crowded environment and the expected minimum separation for fragmentation being many times greater than the orbital separation.…
(Abridged) Interacting galaxies are well-known for their high star formation rates and rich star cluster populations, but the rapidly changing tidal field can also efficiently destroy clusters. We use numerical simulations of merging disc…