Star Formation

This book provides a modern introduction to the study of star formation, at a level suitable for graduate students or advanced undergraduates in astrophysics. The first third of the book provides a review of the observational phenomenology and then the basic physical processes that are important for star formation. The remainder then discusses the major observational results and theoretical models for star formation on scales from galactic down to planetary. The book includes recommendations for complementary reading from the research literature, as well as five problem sets with solutions.

Contents:

• Introduction and Phenomenology:

  • Observing the Cold Interstellar Medium
  • Observing Young Stars

• Physical Processes:

  • Chemistry and Thermodynamics
  • Gas Flows and Turbulence
  • Magnetic Fields and Magnetized Turbulence
  • Gravitational Instability and Collapse
  • Stellar Feedback

• Star Formation Processes and Problems:

  • Giant Molecular Clouds
  • The Star Formation Rate at Galactic Scales: Observations
  • The Star Formation Rate at Galactic Scales: Theory
  • Stellar Clustering
  • The Initial Mass Function: Observations
  • The Initial Mass Function: Theory
  • Protostellar Disks and Outflows: Observations
  • Protostellar Disks and Outflows: Theory
  • Protostar Formation
  • Protostellar Evolution
  • Massive Star Formation
  • The First Stars
  • Late-Stage Stars and Disks
  • The Transition to Planet Formation

Readership: Undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers interested in astrophysics.
Key Features:

• This book is comprehensive, covering both galactic and extragalactic star formation
• It follows a modern, more theoretical approach, compared to earlier books which emphasize only on observational phenomenology
• It includes numerical results from latest studies