The Physics of Star Formation in Galaxies across Cosmic Time - Episode VI: Extreme Star Formation

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Over the past years, this Emmy Noether Group has made major progress towards understanding star formation and stellar feedback in galaxies. By using observational constraints on the molecular cloud lifecycle as the basis for star formation and feedback in galaxy formation simulations, a firm standard has been established for studying star formation in normal galaxies. However, the critical question now is how well these models describe 'extreme star formation'. With this extension proposal, we extend our work into the extremes of physical parameter space, where theories break and observations reveal new physics. Firstly, we will use our in-hand observational data to extend our characterisation of the molecular cloud lifecycle in galaxies to the extreme environments of massive, early-type galaxies and galactic nuclei, providing a comprehensive census of star formation in the local Universe. Secondly, we will use our new, state-of-the-art numerical simulations of galaxy formation and evolution to make unique predictions for upcoming observations with JWST and the E-ELT, which for the first time will directly probe star and cluster formation under the extreme conditions of high-redshift galaxies. Together, these extensions encapsulate the comprehensive range of cosmic environments over which star and cluster formation take place, thereby providing an important point of reference going into the era of billion-euro telescopes in the 2020s.