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

在过去的几年里，这个艾美诺伊特小组在理解星系中的恒星形成和恒星反馈方面取得了重大进展。通过使用对分子云生命周期的观测约束作为星系形成模拟中恒星形成和反馈的基础，为研究正常星系中的恒星形成建立了一个坚实的标准。然而，现在的关键问题是，这些模型对“极端恒星形成”的描述有多好。有了这个扩展提议，我们将工作扩展到物理参数空间的极端，在那里理论被打破，观测揭示了新的物理。首先，我们将使用现有的观测数据，将我们对星系中分子云生命周期的描述扩展到大质量、早期类型的星系和星系核的极端环境，提供对局部宇宙中恒星形成的全面普查。其次，我们将使用我们最新的、最先进的星系形成和演化数值模拟来为即将到来的JWST和E-ELT观测做出独特的预测，这将首次直接探测高红移星系极端条件下的恒星和星团形成。总而言之，这些扩展概括了恒星和星团形成所在的广泛的宇宙环境，从而为进入本世纪20年代数十亿欧元的望远镜时代提供了重要的参照点。

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.