We review current understanding of star formation, outlining an overall theoretical framework
and the observations that motivate it. A conception of star formation has emerged in which …

Understanding the formation of stars in galaxies is central to much of modern astrophysics.
However, a quantitative prediction of the star formation rate and the initial distribution of …

We present a unified description of the scenario of global hierarchical collapse (GHC). GHC
constitutes a flow regime of (non-homologous) collapses within collapses, in which all …

We review recent determinations of the present‐day mass function (PDMF) and initial mass
function (IMF) in various components of the Galaxy—disk, spheroid, young, and globular …

We derive an analytic prediction for the star formation rate in environments ranging from
normal galactic disks to starbursts and ULIRGs in terms of the observables of those systems …

The morphology and kinematics of molecular clouds (MCs) are best explained as the
consequence of supersonic turbulence. Supersonic turbulence fragments MCs into dense …

We use a sample of the 13 most luminous WMAP Galactic free–free sources, responsible for
33% of the free–free emission of the Milky Way, to investigate star formation. The sample …

Gas-rich circumstellar disks are the cradles of planet formation. As such, their evolution will
strongly influence the resulting planet population. In the ESO DESTINYS large program, we …

This work presents a new physical model of the star formation rate (SFR), which is verified
with an unprecedented set of large numerical simulations of driven, supersonic, self …

We address the problem of the origin of massive stars, namely the origin, path, and
timescale of the mass flows that create them. Based on extensive numerical simulations, we …