Related papers: The Dynamical Structure and Evolution of Giant Mol…
Research on Galactic Center star formation is making great advances, in particular due to new data from interferometers spatially resolving molecular clouds in this environment. These new results are discussed in the context of established…
We review the progress made in understanding molecular cloud formation and evolution toward star formation since the first Crete conference in 1990. It now seems clear that molecular clouds in the Galaxy at least form from compressed HI…
We present a complete map of the Giant Molecular Clouds in M33 and show that they lie exclusively on filaments of HI. The GMCs are localized on the extended HI filaments, and HI filaments extend well beyond the radius where the GMCs are…
The most recent observational evidence seems to indicate that giant molecular clouds are predominantly gravitationally unbound objects. In this paper we show that this is a natural consequence of a scenario in which cloud-cloud collisions…
We review recent advances in the analytical and numerical modeling of the star formation rate in molecular clouds and discuss the available observational constraints. We focus on molecular clouds as the fundamental star formation sites,…
We introduce a model for the large-scale, global 3D structure of molecular clouds. Motivated by the morphological appearance of clouds in surface density maps, we model clouds as cylinders, with the aim of backing out information about the…
We investigate the effect of star formation and diffuse photoelectric heating on the properties of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) formed in high resolution (~< 10 pc) global (~ 20 kpc) simulations of isolated Milky Way-type galaxy disks. The…
Understanding mass, size, and surface mass density of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in galaxies is key to insights into star formation processes. We analyze these in M33 using Herschel dust and archival IRAM 30m telescope data, compared to…
Young massive clusters (YMCs) are recently formed astronomical objects with unusually high star formation rates. We propose the collision of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) as a likely formation mechanism of YMCs, consistent with the YMC…
Galactic star formation scaling relations show increased scatter from kpc to sub-kpc scales. Investigating this scatter may hold important clues to how the star formation process evolves in time and space. Here, we combine different…
We present the results from simulations of GMC formation in spiral galaxies. First we discuss cloud formation by cloud-cloud collisions, and gravitational instabilities, arguing that the former is prevalent at lower galactic surface…
Observations find a median star formation efficiency per free-fall time in Milky Way Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) on the order of $\epsilon_{\rm ff}\sim 1\%$ with dispersions of $\sim0.5\,{\rm dex}$. The origin of this scatter in…
Using studies of nearby star formation with Spitzer, I will argue that star formation is restricted to dense cores within molecular clouds. The nature of these dense cores and their connection to star formation will be discussed. Their…
Current observations favour that the massive ultraviolet-bright clumps with a median stellar mass of $\sim 10^7~M_{\odot}$, ubiquitously observed in $z\sim 1-3$ galaxies, are star-forming regions formed in-situ in galaxies. It has been…
Giant clumps are a characteristic feature of observed high-redshift disk galaxies. We propose that these kpc-sized clumps have a complex substructure and are the result of many smaller clumps self-organizing themselves into clump clusters…
The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) is the most extreme star-forming environment in the Milky Way in terms of gas pressures, densities, temperatures, and dynamics. It acts as a critical test bed for developing star formation theories…
The cold molecular gas in contemporary galaxies is structured in discrete cloud complexes. These giant molecular clouds (GMCs), with $10^4$-$10^7$ solar masses and radii of 5-100 parsecs, are the seeds of star formation. Highlighting the…
We investigate the Hi envelope of the young, massive GMCs in the star-forming regions N48 and N49, which are located within the high column density Hi ridge between two kpc-scale supergiant shells, LMC 4 and LMC 5. New long-baseline Hi 21…
A population of molecular clouds with a significantly greater scale height than that of Giant Molecular Clouds has been identified by examining maps of the latitude distribution of the $^{12}CO(1-0)$ emission in the first quadrant of the…
We analyse extinction maps of nearby Giant Molecular Clouds to forge a link between driving processes of turbulence and modes of star formation. Our investigation focuses on cloud structure in the column density range above the self…