Title: Star formation in the local universe

Speaker: 施勇 教授
Institute: 南京大学
Time: 2017.04.27（Thursday） 14:30
Place: Physics Building 573, Haiyun Campus, Xiamen University
Abstract: Stars including our Sun are born in clouds of cold gas. Understanding how gas converts into stars is crucial to constraining galaxy formation and evolution across the cosmic time. In the early universe, primordial gas with little or no metals collapse into the early-generation stars whose radiation may re-ionize the universe. The subsequent rising of the cosmic star-formation-rate (SFR) density until z∼2 follows with the decline until the current universe. The driving mechanism of this cosmic SFR evolution is argued to be related to the cold gas reservoir available within the galaxies and its capability of forming new stars. The local universe offers a key laboratory to understanding the interplay between star formation and cold gas. In this talk, I will talk about star formation in gas with little metal, the correlations between gas and SFR densities, as well as the suppressing of star formation by super-massive-black-holes’ accretion. These studies offer important physical insights into how gas converts to stars across the cosmic time.