CAREER: Star Formation and Dense Gas Dynamics in Molecular Clouds

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Dr. Hector Arce (Yale University) will provide an unprecedented observational data set that will be used to study the evolution of the dense gas intimately involved in the star formation process. The goal of the project is to establish how infall and outflow rates change of over the lifetime of cores and understand the relative effect of infall and outflow at different evolutionary stages on the cores' mass loss and star formation processes. The proposed research also aims to determine the importance of outflows in the removal of dense gas surrounding isolated cores and clusters, and in driving turbulence in these regions. The results will be used to develop an empirical model of the evolution of the mass-assembling process in low-mass protostars and to constrain models of core and star formation. These are essential steps needed to understand the origin of stellar masses and the initial mass function. The students and postdoctoral fellows working on these projects will become knowledgeable in the areas of star formation and molecular clouds and will have experience conducting, reducing, analyzing and interpreting radio astronomical data. This will be an asset in their future astronomical careers in the era of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescope. Increasing the number of minority high school students that become interested in science and educating the public on the significance of radio astronomy and interferometry are important impacts that will also result from the activities carried out under this award. The observations taken as part of this study will provide the astronomical community with (sub)-millimeter data of star-forming regions observable from the southern hemisphere that can be use to guide more detailed studies with future (more powerful) millimeter and sub-millimeter telescopes. Moreover, this study will help foster collaboration with the Universidad de Chile and provide valuable international research experience to students and postdoctoral fellows.