The processes of star formation and feedback take place on the scales of giant molecular clouds (GMCs; ~ 100 pc) within galaxies and play a major role in governing galaxy evolution. By applying a robust statistical method to PHANGS observations, we systematically measure the evolutionary timeline from molecular clouds to exposed young stellar regions, across an unprecedented sample of 54 galaxies. These timescales depend on galaxy environment, revealing the role of galactic-scale dynamical processes in the small-scale GMC evolution. Furthermore, in the 5 nearest galaxies of our sample, we have refined the GMC timeline further and established the duration of the heavily obscured phase, using 24 μm emission. These results represent a major first step towards a comprehensive picture of cloud assembly and feedback, which will be extended to 19 more galaxies with our ongoing JWST Large Program.

We studied the probability distribution function of the column density (N-PDF) of molecular clouds based on a fit with a multi-log-normal function using the Nobeyama 45-m Cygnus X CO survey data. We identified 124 molecular clouds in 13CO data using the DENDROGRAM and SCIMES algorithms. The N-PDF was constructed for 11 extended (≥ 0.4 deg2) molecular clouds of these identified clouds. We found that every N-PDF is well-fitted with one or two log-normal (LN) distributions. We investigated the distributions of the column density, C18O dense cores, and radio continuum source in each cloud and found that the N-PDF was less correlated with the star-forming activity. The LN N-PDF parameters showed two impressive features. First, the LN distribution at the low-density part had the same mean column density (∼1021.5 cm−2 ) for almost all the molecular clouds. Second, the wider LN distribution tended to show the lower mean density of the structures.

We employ the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE-2) physics model to study how the properties of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) evolve during galaxy mergers. Due to the rarity of mergers in the local Universe, samples of nearby merging galaxies suitable for studies of individual GMCs are limited. Idealized simulations provide us with a new window to study GMC evolution during a merger, and assist in interpreting observations. We conduct a pixel-by-pixel analysis of the simulated molecular gas properties in both undisturbed control galaxies and galaxy mergers. The simulated GMC-pixels follow a similar trend in a diagram of velocity dispersion (σv) versus gas surface density (Σmol) as observed in normal spiral galaxies in the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) survey. For simulated mergers, we see a significant increase in both the Σmol and σv for GMC-pixels by a factor of 5 – 10, which put these pixels to be above the trend of PHANGS galaxies in the σv vs Σmol diagram. This deviation indicates that GMCs in the simulated merger are more gravitationally unbound and have higher virial parameter (αvir) of 10 – 100, which is much larger than that of simulated control galaxies. Furthermore, we find that the increase in αvir generally happens at the same time as the increase in global star formation rate (SFR), which suggests feedback is playing a role in dispersing the gas. The correspondence between high αvir and SFR also suggests some other physical mechanisms besides self-gravity are helping the GMCs in starburst mergers to collapse and form stars.

To understand the physical properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) in various scales, we should investigate it with pc-scale resolution over kpc scale coverage. Here, we report the sub-kpc scale Gas Density Histogram (GDH) of the Milky Way. GDH is a histogram of averaged density and corresponds to the probability density distribution (PDF) of gas volume density. We use galactic plain survey data (l =10∘− 50∘) at 12CO and 13CO (J = 1 − 0) obtained as a part of the FOREST Unbiased Galactic plane Imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45m telescope (FUGIN). With this method and data, we are free from spatial structure and molecular cloud identification. GDH can be well fitted with single or double log-normal distribution; which we call as the low-density log-normal (L-LN) and high-density log-normal (H-LN) components. We found both the H-LN fraction (fH) and L-LN width (σL) along the gas density axis show a coherent structure on the longitude-velocity diagram. It suggests that there is a relationship between the ISM property and kpc scale structure in the Milky Way.

We examine the physical conditions required for the formation of H2 in the solar neighborhood by comparing H i emission and absorption spectra toward 58 lines of sight at b < −5∘ to CO(1–0) and dust data. Our analysis of CO-associated cold and warm neutral medium (CNM and WNM) shows that the formation of CO-traced molecular gas is favored in regions with high column densities where the CNM becomes colder and more abundant. In addition, our comparison to the one-dimensional steady-state H i-to-H2 transition model of Bialy et al. (2016) suggests that only a small fraction of the clumpy CNM participates in the formation of CO-traced molecular gas. Another possible interpretation would be that missing physical and chemical processes in the model could play an important role in H2 formation.

One of the primary foci of research in astrophysics is on developing a rigorous understanding of the first galaxies. This entails studying the physical processes such as accretion, cooling and star formation in first galaxies, and also investigating the consequences of these processes in the present day Universe. We investigate the star formation in the early galaxies and its subsequent evolution using the eagle simulation and find that the star formation has a smooth evolutionary behaviour at low redshifts leading to a main sequence of star formation that can be explained by deterministic models using accretion history as an input. In contrast, at high redshift (>6), most of the galaxies are bursty. At high redshift, instead of exhibiting a main sequence in SFR – Mh plane, they bunch-up around a halo mass of ≈ 109 Mȯ and SFR ≈0.1 Mȯ yr−1. As a consequence, the reionization of the Universe is led by low mass haloes hosting brighter galaxies that are undergoing intense bursts. Furthermore, the bursts in the infant galaxies lead to a poorly mixed interstellar medium in which the stars can form from gas enriched predominantly by a single nucleosynthetic channel. The lower mass subset of the stars formed in first galaxies resemble the carbon enhanced metal poor stars in our Galaxy while the higher mass ones reionized the Universe.

We serendipitously found an intriguing Extended Emission Line Region (EELR) near the quiescent and massive early-type Mrk 1172, with a projected extension of approximately 14 × 14 kpc. Its irregular shape, high gas content, strong emission lines and proximity to an isolated possible faded quasar raise questions about the ionization of this gas and the nature of this object. Analyzing the stellar population in both objects we observe that the EELR has a dominance of young-intermediate and intermediate stellar populations (200 Myr < t < 1 Gyr) with significant star formation activity, while Mrk 1172 is dominated by old stellar population (t > 5 Gyr). BPT diagnostic diagrams indicate that the gas in the EELR is photoionized by hot massive stars rather than by a hard radiation field or by shocks. Further analysis on abundances of the gas and its kinematics shall be performed to better comprehend the nature of this object and how it is interacting with Mrk 1172.

Star formation provides insight into the physical processes that govern the transformation of gas into stars. A key missing piece in a predictive theory of star formation is the link between scales of individual stars and star clusters up to entire galaxies. LEGUS is now providing the information to test the overall organization and spatial evolution of star formation. We present our latest findings of using star clusters from LEGUS combined with ALMA CO observations to investigate the transition from molecular gas to star formation in local galaxies. This work paves the way for future JWST observations of the embedded phase of star formation, the last missing ingredient to connect young star clusters and their relation with gas reservoirs. Multi-wavelength studies of local galaxies and their stellar and gas components will help shed light on early phases of galaxy evolution and properties of the ISM at high-z.

The Atacama Large (Sub-)millimeter Array (ALMA) has provided glimpse of the interstellar medium (ISM) properties of galaxies at the Epoch of Reionization (EoR); however, detailed understanding of their internal structure is still lacking. We present properties of molecular cloud complexes (MCCs) in a prototypical galaxy at this epoch studied in cosmological zoom-in simulations (Leung et al. 2019c). Typical MCC mass and size are comparable to nearby spirals and starburst galaxies (Mgas∼106.5Mȯ and R≃45–100 pc). MCCs are highly supersonic, with velocity dispersion of σgas≃20–100 km s−1 and pressure of P/kB ≃107.6Kcm−3, which are comparable to gas-rich starburst galaxies. In addition, we perform stability analysis to understand the origin and dynamical properties of MCCs. We find that MCCs are globally stable in the main disk of Althæa. Densest regions where star formation is expected to take place in clumps and cores on even smaller scales instead have lower virial parameter and Toomre-Q values. Detailed studies of the star-forming gas dynamics at the EoR thus require a spatial resolution of < 40 pc ( ≃ 0.01″), which is within reach of ALMA, to complement studies of stellar populations at EoR using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

We present a suite of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of galaxies at z⩾ 5using the state-of-the-art models for the multi-phase ISM, star formation, and stellar feedback from the FIRE project. We present a series of key results from these simulations, including the stellar mass–halo mass relation, the ultraviolet luminosity functions, dust attenuation and dust temperatures, the ubiquitous formation of bound star clusters, morphology and clumpiness, and the escape fractions of ionizing photons from high-redshift galaxies. We discuss how different simulations in the literature agree and disagree and what observations are most useful for testing the models in the era of ALMA and JWST.

Star formation takes place in the dense gas phase, and therefore a simple dense gas and star formation rate relation has been proposed. With the advent of multi-beam receivers, new observations show that the deviation from linear relations is possible. In addition, different dense gas tracers might also change significantly the measurement of dense gas mass and subsequently the relation between star formation rate and dense gas mass. We report the preliminary results the DEnse GAs in MAssive star-forming regions in the Milky Way (DEGAMA) survey that observed the dense gas toward a suite of well-characterized massive star-forming regions in the Milky Way. Using the resulting maps of HCO+ 1–0, HCN 1–0, CS 2–1, we discuss the current understanding of the dense gas phase where star formation takes place.

Star formation started as a cosmic process soon after the big bang and still continues in the Milky Way, although at a decreasing rate. The formation of dense interstellar clouds, their fragmentation and eventual collapse lead to the birth of stars. The nearby clouds provide the highest resolution for the study of this process. The progress is closely following the improvement of the infrared and radio-wavelength facilities that enables us to follow even the earliest stages of the star-formation process inside molecular clouds. On the other hand, modern numerical simulations can take into account most of the relevant physics and often provide a more direct access into the general principles of star formation. The comparison of observations and simulations is therefore essential. In this paper, will discuss star formation in the solar neighbourhood, concentrating on the prestellar phases leading up to the formation of protostars.

The apparent lack of cold molecular gas in blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxies is at variance with their intense star-formation episode. The CO molecule, often used a tracer of H2 through a conversion function, is selectively photodissociated in dust-poor environments and, as a result, a potentially large fraction of H2 is expected to reside in the so-called CO-dark gas, where it could be traced instead by infrared cooling lines [CI], [CII], and [OI]. Although the fraction of CO-dark gas to total molecular gas is in theory expected to be relatively large in metal-poor galaxies, many uncertainties remain due to the difficulty in identifying the main heating mechanism associated to the cooling lines observed in such galaxies.

Investigations of the Herschel Dwarf Galaxy Survey (DGS; Madden et al.2013) show that the heating mechanism in the neutral gas of BCDs cannot be dominated by the photoelectric effect on dust grains below some threshold metallicity due to the low abundance of dust and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, implying that other heating mechanisms need to be invoked, along with a new interpretation of the corresponding infrared line diagnostics. In the study presented here and in Lebouteiller et al. (2017), we use optical and infrared lines to constrain the physical conditions in the HII region + HI region of the BCD I Zw 18 (18 Mpc; ≍2% solar metallicity) within a consistent photoionization and photodissociation model. We show that the HI region is entirely heated by a single ultraluminous X-ray source with important consequences on the applicability of [CII] to trace the star-formation rate and to trace the CO-dark gas. We derive stringent upper limits on the size of H2 clumps that may be detected in the future with JWST and IRAM/NOEMA. We also show that the nature of the X-ray source can be inferred from the corresponding signatures in the ISM. Finally we speculate that star formation may be quenched in extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxies due to X-ray photoionization.

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 their radii, leaving a lasting impact on their potential habitability. In the solar neighbourhood, we find that the vast majority of stars form in unbound associations, such that the interaction of (proto)planetary systems with neighbouring stars is limited to the densest sub-regions. However, the fraction of star formation occurring in compact clusters was considerably higher in the past, peaking at ∼50% in the young Milky Way at redshift z ∼ 2. These results demonstrate that the large-scale star formation environment affects the demographics of planetary systems and the occupation of the habitable zone. We show that planet formation is governed by multi-scale physics, in which Mpc-scale events such as galaxy mergers affect the AU-scale properties of (proto)planetary systems.

This review examines observations of magnetic fields in molecular clouds, that is, at spatial scales ranging from tens to tenths of parsecs and densities up to hundreds of particles per cubic centimetre. I will briefly summarize the techniques for observing and mapping magnetic fields in molecular clouds. I will review important examples of observational results obtained using each technique and their implications for our understanding of the role of the magnetic field in molecular cloud formation and evolution. Finally, I will briefly discuss the prospects for advances in our observational capabilities with telescopes and instruments now beginning operation or under construction.

Dense cores represent a critical stage in the star-formation process, but are not physically well-defined entities. We present a new technique to define core boundaries in observations of molecular clouds based on the physical properties of the cloud medium. Applying this technique to regions in the Pipe nebula, we find that our core boundaries differ from previous analyses, with potentially crucial implications for the statistical properties of the core sample.

The Magellanic Clouds offer the opportunity to obtain a spatially resolved view of external galaxies at reduced metallicity with no distance ambiguity. Our ALMA observations of the active star-forming region N83C in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) revealed subparsec-scale molecular structures in 12CO and 13CO (2-1) emission Muraoka et al. (2017). We found strong CO peaks associated with Young Stellar Objects(YSOs) and derived a typical gas density of ∽104 cm−3 and gas temperature of 40-60 K from the excitation analysis. The high gas density and temperature are presumably due to the effect of the HII region under the low-metallicity environment. We have found that the column density ratios N(CI)/N(CO) are generally high throughout the cloud compared with the Galaxy, ranging from 0.2 to 2.0. A peak of the ratio is observed toward a CO peak associated with a massive protostar.

Planck cold clump G163.82-8.44 is part of the Auriga-California Molecular Cloud. It was observed with Herschel PACS and SPIRE instruments as part of the Herschel open time key programme Galactic Cold Cores. Follow-up ground-based molecular line observation of NH3 was performed to the densest part of the filament with the Effelsberg-100m telescope. We detected two different velocity components with a separation of 0.5 km/s. We performed radiative transfer modeling with two 3-dimensional spheres to characterise the temperature and density of the dense cores. We have found that the temperatures of the two cores are almost the same, 10.8 K and 11.1 K and their mass and size ratios are 1:10 and 1:5, respectively.

We explore the Milky Way supershell GS242-03+37. We argue that the observed HI distribution can be explained as an expanding structure about 100 Myr old powered with a modest energy released by an OB association. The formation of star clusters has been triggered less than 30 Myr ago when the ISM density in the supershell increased due to the galactic differential rotation. The observed age sequence of young star clusters is related to the evolution of the column density during the supershell expansion.

Investigating the distant extragalactic Universe requires a subtraction of the Galactic foreground. One of the major difficulties deriving the fine structure of the galactic foreground is the embedded foreground and background point sources appearing in the given fields. It is especially so in the infrared. We report our study subtracting point sources from Herschel images with Kriging, an interpolation method where the interpolated values are modelled by a Gaussian process governed by prior covariances. Using the Kriging method on Herschel multi-wavelength observations the structure of the Galactic foreground can be studied with much higher resolution than previously, leading to a better foreground subtraction at the end.