Related papers: Cluster Formation and the ISM
We discuss star formation in the turbulent interstellar medium. We argue that morphological appearance and dynamical evolution of the gas is primarily determined by supersonic turbulence, and that stars form via a process we call…
Star formation is inefficient. Recent advances in numerical simulations and theoretical models of molecular clouds show that the combined effects of interstellar turbulence, magnetic fields and stellar feedback can explain the low…
Most stars form in highly clustered environments within molecular clouds, but eventually disperse into the distributed stellar field population. Exactly how the stellar distribution evolves from the embedded stage into gas-free associations…
Star formation depends on the available gaseous "fuel" as well as galactic environment, with higher specific star formation rates where gas is predominantly molecular and where stellar (and dark matter) densities are higher. The partition…
Clusters are the dense inner regions of a wide-spread hierarchy of young stellar structures. They often reveal a continuation of this hierarchy inside of them, to smaller scales, when they are young, but orbital mixing eventually erases…
Star formation by gravitational instabilities, sequential triggering, and turbulence triggering are briefly reviewed in order to compare the various mechanisms that are observed in main galaxy disks with those in the inner kiloparsec…
We show that massive stars and stellar clusters are formed simultaneously, the global evolution of the forming cluster is what allows the central stars to become massive. We predict that massive star forming clumps, such as those observed…
Star complexes are the highest level groupings in the hierarchy of the embedded young stars, clusters and associations, which obey the size - age relation. Starburst clumps, superassociations, supergiant HII regions are different titles for…
We discuss the role of turbulence in cloud and star formation, as observed in numerical simulations of the interstellar medium. Turbulent compression at the interfaces of colliding gas streams is responsible for the formation of…
Our numerical simulations first demonstrate that the pressure of ISM in a major merger becomes so high ($>$ $10^5$ $\rm k_{\rm B}$ K $\rm cm^{-3}$) that GMCs in the merger can collapse to form globular clusters (GCs) within a few Myr. The…
We provide a brief overview of recent advances and outstanding issues in simulations of interstellar turbulence, including isothermal models for interior structure of molecular clouds and larger-scale multiphase models designed to simulate…
This talk is an attempt to combine recent insights into the nature of the nuclear star clusters in galaxies of various morphologies into a coherent (albeit simplistic) picture for their formation, growth, and eventual destruction.
We review recent high spatial resolution millimeter continuum and spectral line observations of (proto-)cluster regions. These observations reveal that the mass distribution of prestellar cores is consistent with the initial mass function…
Mergers of massive gas-rich galaxies trigger violent starbursts that - over timescales of $> 100$ Myr and regions $> 10$ kpc - form massive and compact star clusters comparable in mass and radii to Galactic globular clusters. The star…
Recent high-resolution observations with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) reveal that young star clusters of extraordinary luminosity and compactness ("super star clusters") are commonly found in starburst systems. Cluster formation appears…
With the help of a statistical parameter derived from optical spectra, we show that the current star formation rate of a galaxy, falling into a cluster along a supercluster filament, is likely to undergo a sudden enhancement before the…
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…
Turbulence, self-gravity, and cooling convert most of the interstellar medium into cloudy structures that form stars. Turbulence compresses the gas into clouds directly and it moves pre-existing clouds around passively when there are…
We studied the formation process of star clusters using high-resolution N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamcs simulations of colliding galaxies. The total number of particles is 1.2x10^8 for our high resolution run. The gravitational…
Evidence for triggered star formation is difficult to establish because energy feedback from massive stars tend to erase the interstellar conditions that led to the star formation. Young stellar objects (YSOs) mark sites of {\it current}…