Advances in Star Formation in the Milky Way

A special issue of Universe (ISSN 2218-1997). This special issue belongs to the section "Stellar Astronomy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 1388

Special Issue Editors

School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Interests: star formation; magnetic fields in molecular clouds; galactic HI surveys
South-Western Institute for Astronomical Research, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Interests: interstellar medium; star formation; astrophysical hydrodynamics; computational astrophysics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Star formation is a key component of the cosmic baryon cycle. It plays a vital role in the formation and evolution of galaxies, and is a prerequisite to planet formation. While the study of extragalactic star formation focuses on how interstellar gas and dust turn into stars over a whole galaxy, the research on star formation in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is unique in revealing the underlying physics in the formation of a single star, the formation of a binary or multiple star, and the formation of a star cluster. Over the past decades, cumulating observational, theoretical, and numerical efforts have greatly enriched our knowledge of the star formation process in our Galaxy. This Special Issue is to gather around recent works in the study of Galactic star formation, aimed at highlighting significant progresses addressing open questions in the context. We welcome contributions on various topics of Galactic star formation, including but not limited to the formation and dynamics of hierarchical molecular cloud structures, ranging from giant molecular clouds (GMCs) to dense cloud cores, the nature of interstellar turbulence and its impact on molecular cloud evolution, the strength and morphology of interstellar magnetic fields and their roles in star formation, the origin of initial mass function (IMF) and its relation to star cluster formation, the initial conditions and mass assembly processes leading to the birth of stars of different masses, the mechanisms of binary and multiple star formation, jets, outflows, and accretion disks in protostars and young stellar objects (YSOs), star formation in extreme environments such as the Galactic center and mini starburst regions, feedbacks from newborn stars.

Prof. Dr. Keping Qiu
Dr. Guangxing Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • molecular clouds
  • massive star formation
  • star cluster formation
  • initial mass function
  • interstellar turbulence
  • interstellar magnetic fields
  • protostars
  • young stellar objects
  • jets and outflows
  • circumstellar disks

 

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

9 pages, 2591 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Spectral Line Broadening of the Bulk Motions in the High Mass Star Forming Region with Radiative Transfer Simulations
by Shixian Mo and Keping Qiu
Universe 2023, 9(9), 415; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe9090415 - 10 Sep 2023
Viewed by 845
Abstract
The Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi (DCF) method is widely used to indirectly estimate the strength of magnetic fields in star-forming regions. However, recent developments in this method have primarily focused on improving the measurement of angular dispersion of the field, neglecting other physical quantities, especially turbulence [...] Read more.
The Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi (DCF) method is widely used to indirectly estimate the strength of magnetic fields in star-forming regions. However, recent developments in this method have primarily focused on improving the measurement of angular dispersion of the field, neglecting other physical quantities, especially turbulence velocity. Most DCF studies tend to overlook or fail to acknowledge the influence of bulk motions on the linewidth, and directly obtain the turbulence velocity based on the non-thermal linewidth. Therefore, to explore the contributions of bulk motions to the linewidth, we conducted radiative transfer simulations using a rotating and infalling envelope–disk model to a high-mass star formation region, IRAS18360-0537. The main conclusion from our work is that the bulk motions contribute significantly to the linewidth and cannot be fully eliminated by simply deducing velocity gradients. Hence, fully attributing the observed non-thermal velocity dispersion derived from fitting a spectral line profile to the turbulence can result in significantly overestimated magnetic field strength and may yield unscientific results of star-forming regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Star Formation in the Milky Way)
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