Research project

Main questions to be addressed by STARFORM:

  • Is there a unique law describing star formation across the Universe?
  • What is the importance of turbulence in star formation?
  • What is the physical origin and nature of star forming clumps in high redshift galaxies?
  • What is the impact of feedback on the structure and star formation properties of distant galaxies?

Main concrete objectives:

  • Study the behaviour of very cold gas at small scales
  • Understand the physics of molecular clouds through observations, simulations, and confrontation between them
  • Establish the relation between cores and stars, e.g. the core mass function
  • Develop new tools to predict IR/mm observations from state-of-the-art simulations
  • Carry out a new generation of numerical high-resolution simulations of distant star-forming galaxies to study the origin and importance of massive clumps, and other processes on disk and bulge formation
  • Obtain observations of near-IR, IR and mm molecular and atomic lines of strongly lensed star-forming galaxies to determine the physical properties of the gas and the conditions of star formation in high- redshift galaxies
  • Comparison of star formation properties in distant galaxies and in the nearby Universe

Methods to be used:

  • New code developments
  • New simulations and applications
  • New multi-wavelength observations