How do galaxies form stellar nurseries throughout cosmic time?

恒星形成于星系中稠密的分子气体云中，但这些云和其中恒星的形成如何取决于星系内的条件仍然是未知的。在螺旋星系中，在密集的旋臂中形成的云是否比旋臂之间的区域更能有效地制造恒星？在以超新星为主的不规则小星系中，分子云与螺旋星系中的分子云相同吗？在星暴星系中，所有这些变化是如何发生的？在那里，有更多来自形成中恒星的能量反馈。这些问题对于早期宇宙时期的星系尤其重要，因为这些星系可能与我们现在的银河系非常不同。在这个项目中，我们将使用开创性的高分辨率模拟来回答这些问题，并研究银河系以外的其他星系如何形成星星。我们将改变诸如星系势、气体表面密度、恒星反馈和气体中化学冷却剂丰度等数量，以研究星星的形成在其他环境中可能有何不同，比如在早期宇宙时代发现的环境。

Stars form in dense clouds of molecular gas in galaxies, but how the formation of these clouds and the stars within them depend on conditions within the galaxy is still unknown. In spiral galaxies, are clouds formed in the dense spiral arms more efficient at making stars, than in regions between the arms? Are molecular clouds the same in small irregular galaxies dominated by supernovae as in spiral galaxies? How does all this change in starburst galaxies where there is more energetic feedback from the forming stars? These questions are particularly important for galaxies at earlier cosmic times which are likely to be quite different to our current Milky Way.In this project we will use ground-breaking high-resolution simulations of how molecular gas evolves in galaxies to answer these questions, and investigate how star formation may proceed in other galaxies beyond our Milky Way. We will vary quantities such as the galactic potential, gas surface density, stellar feedback and abundance of chemical coolants in the gas, to examine how star formation may differ in other environments such as those found at earlier cosmic times.