Starless cores: probing the initial conditions of star formation

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Starless cores represent the initial conditions of star formation and observational characterization of these cores is critical to understand stellar evolution. For example, recent observations have shown a striking similarity between the starless core mass distribution and the stellar Initial Mass Function, suggesting that stellar mass (and subsequent stellar evolution) is determined by physical processes within parent clouds that form cores. My recent research has focused on detailed observations of several starless cores, yielding new constraints for models of core formation and evolution. This proposal seeks ONLY support for a graduate student at the University of Victoria to become involved in exciting new projects only now possible with upcoming instrumental opportunities. These projects will include obtaining unprecedentedly large samples of starless cores from nearby star-forming molecular clouds with the new JCMT instruments SCUBA-2 and HARP and the new HSO instruments PACS and SPIRE, allowing definitive conclusions to be finally made about core structures, dynamics and masses.